[ RadSafe ] " Nuclear workers: low radiation dose linked to small increased r isk of cancer "

[Franta, Jaroslav]

How accurate is this media story about the published study ?
>From what I've seen of individual country studies (which contributed to this
global compilation, I believe), the cancer rates of nuclear workers is lower
than that of the public in general -- although age adjustment & other
factors need to be factored in.....

Jaro 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Nuclear workers: low radiation dose linked to small increased risk of cancer
Agence France Presse English 
Tue 28 Jun 2005 

PARIS, June 29 (AFP) - Workers in the nuclear industry who are exposed to
low doses of radiation face an increased probability of developing cancer,
but the risk is small and in line with safety guidelines, a study published
on Wednesday says. 

The research, published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), is the
biggest of its kind, involving more than 400,000 nuclear workers in 15
countries, whose exposure to ionising radiation and health were monitored
for 13 years on average. 

Present international safety recommendations are that workers in the nuclear
industry be limited to occupational doses of 100 millisieverts (mSv)
accumulated over five years, which should not exceed 50 mSv in any one year.

Doses for the general public should be limited to one mSv per year,
according to these recommendations. 

But these benchmarks are based on the outcome of survivors of the atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- and some experts say it is unsafe to
extrapolate such data for radiation workers and the general public. 

The new study estimates that a dose of 100 mSv leads to a nearly 10-percent
increase in the risk of mortality from all cancers excluding leukaemia. 
The dose would lead to a 19-percent increase in death from leukaemia, except
for a form of this cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. 

But very few workers received 100mSv or more and some of the premature
deaths could be attributable to smoking, the study says. 

"On the basis of these estimates, one to two percent of deaths from cancer
among workers in this cohort may be attributable to radiation," it says. 
The risk is "higher than but statistically compatible with" the
recommendations set down by the International Commission on Radiological
Protection (ICRP), it declares. 

Less than five percent of workers in the study received doses of more than
100 mSv over the course of their entire career, and most of these higher
doses occurred in the early years of the nuclear industry when protection
standards were less stringent than today, the study says. 

The average overall dose per worker in the study was 19.4 mSv; 90 percent
had doses of less than 50 mSv. 

Ninety percent of the workers were men. They were employed for at least one
year in nuclear power or nuclear research, waste management, production of
fuel, isotopes or weapons. 

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