Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Comments on medical monitoring of people exposed to hazards from Rocky Flats nuclear facility in Colorado

AuteurE.P.Radford
-
Datum1998*
Classificatie 3.01.8.44/09 (VS - LOCATIES - ROCKY FLATS)
Voorkant

Uit de publicatie:

COMMENTS ON MEDICAL MONITORING OF PEOPLE EXPOSED TO
HAZARDS FROM ROCKY FLATS NUCLEAR FACILITY IN COLORADO
EDWARD P. RADFORD, M.D.

People living near the Rocky Flats facility were exposed to
radionuclides and other chemicals, such as beryllium, discharged
from the plant over the period of its operation. Because health
effects from these exposures may have occurred in many of these
people, as will be discussed in this report, they will require
continuing medical evaluation. As some of the effects of these
exposures include induction of cancers, with long periods of time
before the cancer may be present or detected, a number of those
exposed will be at risk of these long-term effects. An effort must
be made, therefore, to detect cancers or other diseases associated
with exposure to hazardous materials from Rocky Flats as early as
possible, in order to provide the best medical care for these
people, and in this way benefit them and minimize the impact of
their exposures.
This problem illustrates some important characteristics of
environmentally-induced disease. First, a long time may elapse
after exposure before ill-health effects appear. The time leading
up to late onset of effects is referred to as a latent period,
especially for radiation or beryllium-induced cancers. Second, even
after the late effects begin to appear, they may continue to be
observed in others in the exposed population for many decades
later. During this second phase, the excess risk arising from
radiation exposure is often, although not always, approximately
proportional to the risk among unexposed persons, which is changing
over time as well. For example, for most human cancers the cancer
rate rises progressively with age, and for irradiated populations
the risk also rises with age. This •model" of biological effects of
radiation is strongly supported by results from the study of
Japanese atomic bomb survivors (Thompson et al., 1994). These
authors' analysis of cancer incidence has used the so-called
relative risk model, because these investigators have found that
among the A-bomb survivors the increased cancer risk is best
characterized as proportional to the age-specific cancer rates in
the control population. This excess cancer risk in the A-bomb
survivors is continuing well beyond 40 years after exposure (Pierce
et al., 1996). It is likely that further follow-up will continue to
demonstrate an increased cancer risk in these study populations
over many more years.

*) Geschatte datum

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