Published 8 January 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b64
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b64

News

UK radiation workers have higher than normal cancer risk but lower overall death rate

Susan Mayor

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Radiation workers’ risk of developing a range of cancers rises with increasing exposure to ionising radiation, a UK study has found. The study confirms previous findings but also shows that this group benefits from a "healthy worker effect," with a lower overall death rate than in the general population.

The study looked at cancer incidence and mortality in 174 541 people in the National Registry for Radiation Workers, which was set up in 1976 to assess the effects of protracted exposure to low dose radiation in the workplace. They include workers at nuclear power stations, people working with atomic weapons and medical isotopes, and researchers working with radioactive materials.

The latest results show that the incidence and mortality from leukaemia (apart from chronic lymphocytic leukaemia) and all other malignant neoplasms apart from leukaemia (that is, solid cancers) rose significantly with an increasing dose of radiation exposure (British Journal of . . . [Full text of this article]


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