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An analysis of the mortality of workers in a nuclear facility (1979)

Auteur	E.S.Gilbert, S.Marks
Datum	1979
Classificatie	3.01.8.43/14 (VS - LOCATIES - HANFORD)
Voorkant

RADIATION RESEARCH 79, 122-148 (1979)

An Analysis of the Mortality of Workers in a Nuclear Facility (1)

ETHEL S. GILBERT AND SIDNEY MARKS

Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352

GILBERT, E. S., AND MARKS, S. An Analysis of the Mortality of Workers 
in a Nuclear Facility. Radial. Res. 79, 122-148 (1979).

Data from the Hanford plant, where many workers have been employed in jobs 
involving some exposure to radiation, are analyzed. Mortality from all causes, all 
cancers, and specific cancer types is related to personnel and exposure data for the 
population at risk. Results are compared with those of other investigators who have 
analyzed these data. The mortality of Hanford workers is first compared with that of 
the United States population and then related to radiation exposure without reference 
to an outside population. The first analysis shows a substantial "healthy worker 
effect" and no significantly high standardized mortality ratios for specific disease 
categories. A test for association of mortality with levels of radiation exposure 
reveals no correlation for all causes and all cancer. A statistically significant test 
for trend is obtained for multiple myeloma and cancer of the pancreas but no evidence 
of a positive correlation is found for 13 other cancer sites including those more 
typically associated with radiation exposure such as myeloid leukemia and lung 
cancer. The possibility of other occupational exposures and the lack of reliability 
with respect to diagnosis of cancer of the pancreas must be considered in interpreting 
these results. The identified correlations result from a small number of deaths with 
exposures greater than 15 rem. The lack of correlation for all cancers and for 
leukemia is by no means inconsistent with current estimates of such effects given 
the amount of radiation exposure that has been received.

INTRODUCTION

The evaluation of health effects in populations occupationally exposed to radiation 
is a matter of considerable current controversy. Existing standards for occupational 
exposure are based primarily on estimates of health effects obtained by linear 
extrapolation from effects at high-level exposures, such as those experienced by 
atomic bomb survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki or by British patients treated 
with irradiation for ankylosing spondylitis. If these estimates are correct, it is 
unlikely that statistically detectable effects will be identified in groups of the 
size involved in occupational exposures. The study of such groups nevertheless 
provides an opportunity for evaluating the hypothesis that effects might be very
much larger than indirect estimates would suggest.

(1) This work was done by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, operated by
Battelle Memorial Institute, for the U.S. Department of Energy under 
Contract EY-76-C-06-1830.

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