LNT Advocating article

["Jim Nelson" <nelsonjima@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Occup Med 2001 Apr;16(2):331-344



Health Effects in Underground Uranium Miners.



Hornung RW.



The health effects associated with uranium miners have received much 

attention in the last 30 years. Although mortality rates are elevated for 

such causes as accidents and nonmalignant respiratory disease, lung cancer 

caused by exposure to radon decay products is the primary hazard to 

underground uranium miners. This review summarizes studies of eight cohorts 

of radium miners, and examines several pooled analyses that provide the best 

understanding of the radon/lung cancer relationship. The relative risk of 

lung cancer is linearly related to cumulative exposure to radon decay 

products. The excess relative risk decreases with attained age and time 

since exposure. An inverse exposure-rate effect exists, such that prolonged 

exposure at low levels of radon is more hazardous than shorter exposures to 

higher levels. The linear no-threshold model used in most epidemiologic 

studies has been attacked by some as overestimating risk at indoor radon 

levels. These arguments are rejected by this reviewer.





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