Lung Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Lung Cancer, including details on symptoms, smoking, genetics, treatment, causes.

Lung cancer risk among German male uranium miners: a cohort study, 1946-1998.

Grosche B, Kreuzer M, Kreisheimer M, Schnelzer M, Tschense A

Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Department 'Radiation Protection and Health', Ingolstaedter Landstr. 1, 85764 Oberschleissheim, Germany. bgrosche@bfs.de

From 1946 to 1990 extensive uranium mining was conducted in the southern parts of the former German Democratic Republic. The overall workforce included several 100,000 individuals. A cohort of 59,001 former male employees of the Wismut Company was established, forming a large retrospective uranium miners' cohort for the time period 1946-1998. Mean duration of follow-up was 30.5 years with a total of 1 801,630 person-years. Loss to follow-up was low at 5.3%. Of the workers, 16,598 (28.1%) died during the study period. Based on 2388 lung cancer deaths, the radon-related lung cancer risk is evaluated. The excess relative risk (ERR) per working level month (WLM) was estimated as 0.21% (95% CI: 0.18-0.24). It was dependent on time since exposure and on attained age. The highest ERR/WLM was observed 15-24 years after exposure and in the youngest age group (<55 years of age). While a strong inverse exposure-rate effect was detected for high exposures, no significant association was detected at exposures below 100 WLM. Excess relative risk /WLM was not modified by duration of exposure. The results would indicate the need to re-estimate the effects of risk modifying factors in current risk models as duration of exposure did not modify the ERR/WLM and there was only a modest decline of ERR/WLM with increasing time since exposure.

Published 1 November 2006 in Br J Cancer, 95(9): 1280-7.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Lung Cancer Research Today. All Rights Reserved.