Cancer mortality among French nuclear contract workers

Abstract

The mortality of nuclear workers from contracting companies is very low compared to French national mortality.

Mortality associated with chronic external radiation exposure in the French combined cohort of nuclear workers

“…Although some studies of nuclear workers have not reported results for this category of cancer mortality, results can be compared with those for all cancers except leukaemia, which are similar 4. Significant associations between dose and risk for all cancers except leukaemia were observed in several nuclear worker cohorts,4 8 13 27 28 noticeably in the 15-country study4 and the last UK National Registry of Radiation Workers (NRRW) analysis 8. The magnitude of the ERR/Sv estimated in our study appears similar to that estimated in the 15-country study after exclusion of the Canadian cohort 4.…”

“…Some nuclear workers employed by other companies in France, in particular by contractor companies, were not included in the present analysis due to difficulties in ensuring complete dosimetric records and to the lack of data on SES for these individuals 13 21. Indeed, in a previous French cohort of some contactor employees, dose–response analysis could be conducted among only 60% of the population originally targeted and SES was not available for more than 55% of the cohort 13.…”

“…Indeed, in a previous French cohort of some contactor employees, dose–response analysis could be conducted among only 60% of the population originally targeted and SES was not available for more than 55% of the cohort 13. However, efforts are ongoing to improve the epidemiological follow-up of contract workers in the French nuclear industry and they might be considered in future analyses if the quality of dosimetric records and follow-up can be improved.…”

“…Moreover, contractor employees were not included in this combined analysis 13. Uranium miners, who are studied in a separate cohort,14 are also excluded.…”

Mortality in the French cohort of nuclear workers

“…Information in administrative archives of contracting companies is indeed often incomplete, mainly for the years before 1980, making it difficult to reconstitute properly job and dosimetric histories and to link workers' identifiers with national population registries to ascertain vital statuses and causes of death. This difficulty was illustrated by a study of cancer mortality among nuclear contract workers in France (Guérin et al, 2009). Among the 11 577 identified individuals, 4615 (40%) were excluded of the cancer mortality analyses because of uninformative identifiers (name, date of birth...).…”