Ionising radiation and occupational cancer in Britain

Our plain-English summary of Ionising radiation and occupational cancer in Britain, by C.R. Muirhead, R. Haylock (British Journal of Cancer, 2012).

The study

• Authors: C.R. Muirhead, R. Haylock
• Journal: British Journal of Cancer
• Published: 2012;107(9):1660-1; author reply 1662
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This item is a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it concerns ionising radiation rather than asbestos. The authors argued that a British Journal of Cancer supplement on occupational cancer in Britain had not adequately assessed cancers from workplace radiation exposure. The project calculated radiation risks only for leukaemia (excluding CLL), bone, liver and thyroid cancers, although a 2012 IARC monograph found sufficient evidence that radiation causes a wider range of cancers. The authors also said the literature reviews were incomplete and that exposures before 1985 should have been counted for leukaemia. The project assumed that the 1990 collective dose and worker numbers also applied to 1956 to 1989. Yet a National Registry for Radiation Workers report gave average annual doses of 4 mSv or more in 1955 to 1974, against 1.6 mSv in 1985 to 1989 and 0.9 mSv in 1990 to 1994. The authors concluded that the project underestimated the cancer risk from occupational radiation at the start of the 21st century. They stressed that the number of attributable cancers would still have been small.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Letter to the editor commenting on published papers; no original data
• Who was studied: No study population. The letter comments on the British Journal of Cancer supplement on occupational cancer in Britain (volume 107, supplement 1).
• Exposure: Occupational exposure to ionising radiation (IR); asbestos is not discussed
• Main results:
  • The authors argued that the project calculated IR risks only for leukaemia (excluding CLL), bone, liver and thyroid cancers. A 2012 IARC monograph found sufficient evidence that IR causes a wider range of cancers, including those of the salivary gland, oesophagus, stomach, colon, skin (basal cell carcinoma), female breast, urinary bladder, kidney, brain and central nervous system.
  • The authors stated that the project's reviews of the epidemiological literature were incomplete and tended to focus on SMRs rather than on trends in risk with radiation exposure. They also noted that the reviews did not cite the third analysis of the National Registry for Radiation Workers.
  • The authors argued that the UNSCEAR leukaemia model (other than CLL) predicts a raised risk more than 20 years after exposure. They said this suggests exposures before 1985 should also have been taken into account.
  • The project estimated an average annual dose of 1.4 mSv among workers with an annual recorded dose of at least 0.1 mSv during 1986 to 2005. It also assumed that the 1990 collective dose and number of exposed workers applied to 1956 to 1989.
  • The authors cited an earlier National Registry for Radiation Workers report (Muirhead et al, 2009b), not the supplement. That report gave average annual doses of 4 mSv or more during 1955 to 1974, compared with 1.6 mSv in 1985 to 1989 and 0.9 mSv in 1990 to 1994.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors believed the project underestimated the cancer risk at the start of the 21st century due to occupational IR exposure. They stressed that, even with full account taken, the number of cancers attributed to IR would still have been small.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma, Throat and laryngeal cancer.

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