Re: We are killing nuclear workers!

[Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>]

Hi Ruth,

The HWE is that SMRs of workers are higher compared to the general population
because the general population includes people who are too sick to work.

If you think about it, it is somewhat stretching this to apply to cancer
(considering the long latency period, but people with weak immune systems get
more cancer), especially when the object of the study is that workers are
being exposed to the "cancer risks" of the carcinogenic work place.  In fact,
studies of workers in high cancer risk conditions, have an SMR >1.0 vs. the
general population.

Let me know if you want some I-net links to abstracts, or just go to PubMed
and do a search.

Here's an interesting paper by the current Chair of BEIR VII :-)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3723215&dopt=Abstract

Workers (rubber workers?) vs. fire fighters, and others have SMR >1.0 vs. the
general population.

The studies of the actual basis for the HWE are very limited!  If it could be
quantified, the rad protectionists wouldn't be able to say that an SMR of 0.6
is just the HWE! :-)

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

ruth_weiner wrote:
> 
> Has anyone got any ideas about the mechanism of the "healthy worker effect?"
> I do not understand how adequate health benefits reduce the likelihood of
> cancer occurrence.  I mean, one doesn't make use of those benefits usually
> unless one is sick.  Even mammograms are an early detection mechanism, not a
> prevention mechanism.
> 
> Ruth Weiner
> ruth_weiner@msn.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Otto G. Raabe <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Date: Friday, January 05, 2001 8:59 AM
> Subject: Re: We are killing nuclear workers!
> 
> >At 12:55 AM 1/5/01 -0600, Herman Cember wrote:
> >>
> >>I believe that the enrichment plants had radiation safety programs.  I
> also
> >>believe that the best defense of the health and safety record of workerss
> in
> >>the nuclear industry is to poin out that all the studies (of whch I know)
> >>find the standard mortality ratios (SMR) for workers in nuclear
> facilities,
> >>including laboratories, production facilities, and nuclear power plants,
> to
> >>be much less than 1.  I believe that the SMR's for all causes of death run
> >on
> >>the order of 0.8 - 0.9.  Am I correct in my figures?  I also believe that
> >the
> >>next worker to die from radiation in the United States commercial nuclear
> >>power industry will be the first one.  This certainly cannot be said of
> the
> >>safety record of the fossil fuel generating stations.
> >>                                                             Herman Cember
> >***************************************************************************
> **
> >January 5, 2001
> >Davis, CA
> >
> >Yes, but the answer that is usually given is that this is the "healthy
> >worker effect". Nuclear workers were healthy when hired and they got good
> >health care benefits from their employment. Because of this assumption,
> >most epidemiological studies of nuclear workers compare those with "high"
> >doses to those with "low" doses and ignore SMR's. That is also what has
> >been done in the atomic bomb survivor studies by RERF.
> >
> >Otto
> >**********************************************
> >Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
> >Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health
> >(Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road)
> >University of California, Davis, CA 95616
> >E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
> >Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
> >***********************************************
> >************************************************************************
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