ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine2013
Mortality and ionising radiation exposures among workers employed at the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center (1951-1985).
Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Radon exposure and potential health effects other than lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Deep Breaths: A Systematic Review of the Potential Effects of Employment in the Nuclear Industry on Mortality from Non-Malignant Respiratory Disease.Radiation research · 2022Pooled it
- Exposure to Residential Radon and COPD: A Systematic Review.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2020Pooled it
- Residential Proximity, Duration, and Health-Related Quality of Life: Insights from the Fernald Cohort.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- A Historical Survey of Key Epidemiological Studies of Ionizing Radiation Exposure.Radiation research · 2024Review
- Revisiting an Inverse Dose-Fractionation Effect of Ionizing Radiation Exposure for Ischemic Heart Disease: Insights from Recent Studies.Radiation research · 2024Review
- Third mortality follow-up of the Mallinckrodt uranium processing workers, 1942-2019.International journal of radiation biology · 2024Article
- Health Effects of Particulate Uranium Exposure.Toxics · 2022Review
- Sex-specific lung cancer risk among radiation workers in the million-person study and patients TB-Fluoroscopy.International journal of radiation biology · 2022Article
- Cohort profile: four early uranium processing facilities in the US and Canada.International journal of radiation biology · 2021Article
- Risk of stomach cancer incidence in a cohort of Mayak PA workers occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation.PloS one · 2020Article
- Low-dose ionizing radiation increases the mortality risk of solid cancers in nuclear industry workers: A meta-analysis.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2018Article
- Analysis of mortality in a pooled cohort of Canadian and German uranium processing workers with no mining experience.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2018Article
- Risk of Lung Cancer Mortality in Nuclear Workers from Internal Exposure to Alpha Particle-emitting Radionuclides.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2017Article
- External radiation dose and cancer mortality among French nuclear workers: considering potential confounding by internal radiation exposure.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2016Article
- Cancer and non-cancer mortality among French uranium cycle workers: the TRACY cohort.BMJ open · 2016Article
- Mortality from internal and external radiation exposure in a cohort of male German uranium millers, 1946-2008.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2015Article
- Renal Effects and Carcinogenicity of Occupational Exposure to Uranium: A Meta-Analysis.Nephron extraReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo examine mortality patterns and dose-response relations between ionising radiation and mortality outcomes of a priori interest in 6409 uranium workers employed for at least 30 days (1951-1985), and followed through 2004.
methodsCohort mortality was evaluated through standardised mortality ratios (SMR). Linear excess relative risk (ERR) regression models examined associations between cause-specific mortality and exposures to internal ionising radiation from uranium deposition, external gamma and x-ray radiation, and radon decay products, while adjusting for non-radiologic covariates.
resultsPerson-years at risk totalled 236 568 (mean follow-up 37 years), and 43% of the cohort had died. All-cause mortality was below expectation only in salaried workers. Cancer mortality was significantly elevated in hourly males, primarily from excess lung cancer (SMR=1.25, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.42). Cancer mortality in salaried males was near expectation, but lymphohaematopoietic malignancies were significantly elevated (SMR=1.52, 95% CI 1.06 to 2.12). A positive dose-response relation was observed for intestinal cancer, with a significant elevation in the highest internal organ dose category and a significant dose-response with organ dose from internal uranium deposition (ERR=1.5 per 100 μGy, 95% CI 0.12 to 4.1).
conclusionsA healthy worker effect was observed only in salaried workers. Hourly workers had excess cancer mortality compared with the US population, although there was little evidence of a dose-response trend for any cancer evaluated except intestinal cancer. The association between non-malignant respiratory disease and radiation dose observed in previous studies was not apparent, possibly due to improved exposure assessment, different outcome groupings, and extended follow-up.
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