Job related mortality risks of Hanford workers and their relation to cancer effects of measured doses of external radiation

Abstract

This paper continues the series by Mancuso, Stewart, and Kneale (MSK) on studies of cancer risks for radiation workers at Hanford. It concentrates on the statistical problems posed by the need to estimate and control for job related mortality risks when there are several changes of occupation and no certainty about how different occupations are related to two socioeconomic factors which have strong health associations - namely, education and income. The final conclusion is that for tissues which are sensitive to cancer induced by radiation there is a risk of cancer for Hanford exposures whose dose response is curvilinear with long latency and increasing effect with increasing exposure age.