Non-cancer disease prevalence and association with occupational radiation exposure among Korean radiation workers

Abstract

Radiation-induced cancer risks have known stochastic effects; however, regarding non-cancer diseases, evidence of risk at low radiation doses remains unclear. We aimed to identify underlying characteristics concerning non-cancer disease prevalence and determine associations with radiation dose among Korean radiation workers. Using a nationwide baseline survey, 20,608 workers were enrolled. Data concerning participant demographics, occupational characteristics, lifestyle, and lifetime prevalence of non-cancer diseases were linked to a national dose registry. We compared non-cancer disease prevalences in the Korean general population with those in this cohort and undertook a dose–response analysis concerning the cumulative dose. Hyperlipidemia (10.6%), circulatory (9.6%), and respiratory (4.1%) system diseases, followed by thyroid diseases (3.5%), had the highest prevalences, with hyperlipidemia, thyroid diseases, and hepatitis prevalence being higher in the cohort than in the general population. Radiation doses were associated with elevated prevalences of most diseases; however, associations were attenuated and not significant after adjusting for confounders, except for musculoskeletal system diseases (prevalence odds ratio [POR]/10 mSv, 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00–1.07) and cataracts (POR/10 mSv, 1.04; 95% CI 1.00–1.07). Further studies are warranted to investigate the causality of those non-cancer diseases involving more varied confounders such as physical and psychosocial stresses and ultraviolet light.

Ionising radiation and cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…However, information was more limited in the lower dose occupational or environmental studies (supplement table S3.5). In the lower dose studies of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors,20 Mayak workers,646566 and a few other occupationally9091929394 and environmentally exposed9596 groups, substantial information was available on lifestyle factors (supplement S3 table S3.5). In most groups that were exposed to radiation, lifestyle risk factors had little or no evidence of interacting with cardiovascular disease risk related to radiation 13192054565759606162636790919395979899.…”

Thyroid volume changes following adjuvant radiation therapy for breast cancer

“…The thyroid is among the most radiosensitive tissues in the body, and thyroid toxicity can happen with both occupational and medical radiation exposure, in children or adults [15] , [16] . It is well known that for cancer patients who receive RNI to the cervical or SCV nodal regions, incidental thyroid gland irradiation occurs and may cause various thyroid complications, the most common being RT-induced HT.…”

Effects of confounding and effect-modifying lifestyle, environmental and medical factors on risk of radiation-associated cardiovascular disease

“…In contrary, in studies on workers or in general population, generally few potential confounding variables can be collected as the large number of people recruited and the way of collecting the information does not usually allow such information to be obtained. In our systematic review [12], among the lower dose studies with detailed information on lifestyle factors and a large number of included people there were only a few occupational cohorts, principally the Mayak worker cohort [73][74][75][76][77][78], the Semipalatinsk cohort [90], and, with a rather smaller number of people included, the French nuclear fuel cycle workers [81,91] and the Korean radiation worker cohorts [82,92]. For the purposes of maximizing statistical power, speci c CVD outcomes are analyzed together, but potential confounders could act differently on the different outcomes and their speci c effect could be unseen in a pooled analysis of heterogeneous outcomes.…”