Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Comments on medical monitoring of people exposed to hazards from Rocky Flats nuclear facility in Colorado
Auteur | E.P.Radford |
- | |
Datum | 1998* |
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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