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Hanford radiation study III: a cohort study of the cancer risks from radiation to workers..... (1980)

AuthorKneale, Stewart, Mancuso
Date1980
Classification 3.01.8.43/07 (UNITED STATES - SITES - HANFORD)
Front

From the publication:

Hanford radiation study III: a cohort study of the cancer risks from radiation 
to workers at Hanford (1944-77 deaths) by the method of regression models in 
life-tables

G W KNEALE, (l) T F MANCUSO, (2) AND ALICE M STEWART (1)

From the Department of Social Medicine, (1) University of Birmingham, Birmingham 
15, UK, and the University of Pittsburgh, (2) Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA

ABSTRACT 
This paper reports on results from the study initiated by Mancuso into the health 
risks from low-level radiation in workers engaged in plutonium manufacture at 
Hanford Works, Washington State, USA, and attempts to answer criticisms of 
previous reports by an in-depth study. Previous reports have aroused much 
controversy because the reported risk per unit radiation dose for cancers of 
radiosensitive tissues was much greater than the risk generally accepted on the 
basis of other studies and widely used in setting safety levels for exposure to 
low-level radiation. The method of regression models in life-tables isolates the 
effect of radiation after statistically controlling for a wide range of possible 
interfering factors. Like the risk of lung cancer for uranium miners the dose-
response relation showed a significant downward curve at about 10 rem. There 
may, therefore, be better agreement with other studies, conducted at higher doses, 
than is widely assumed. The findings on cancer latency (of about 25 years) and 
the effect of exposure age (increasing age increases the risk) are in general 
agreement with other studies. An unexplained finding is a significantly higher
dose for all workers than for workers who developed cancers in tissues that are 
supposed to have low sensitivity to cancer induction by radiation.

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