Results of a record-based case-control study of natural background radiation and the incidence of childhood cancers in Great Britain

Kendall, G M; Bunch, Kathryn; Jchm., Miles; Vincent, T J; Little, Mark P.; Wakeford, Richard; Meara,; Mfg., Murphy

doi:10.1289/isee.2013.s-2-27-05

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The first grouped measurements by geological boundaries and grid squares; the second used simple averages over county districts. Broadly similar results were obtained with the two models [49].…”

Section: Residential Radonsupporting

confidence: 85%

Epidemiological studies of natural sources of radiation and childhood cancer: current challenges and future perspectives

Mazzei-Abba¹,

Folly²,

Coste³

et al. 2020

J. Radiol. Prot.

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Empirical estimation of cancer risks in children associated with low-dose ionizing radiation (<100 mSv) remains a challenge. The main reason is that the required combination of large sample sizes with accurate and comprehensive exposure assessment is difficult to achieve. An international scientific workshop "Childhood cancer and background radiation" organised by the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine of the University of Bern brought together researchers in this field to evaluate how epidemiological studies on background radiation and childhood cancer can best improve understanding of the effects of low-dose ionising radiation. This review summarises and evaluates the findings of the existing studies in the light of their methodological differences, identifies key limitations and challenges and proposes ways forward. Large childhood cancer registries, such as those in Great Britain, France and Germany, now allow the conducting of studies that should have sufficient statistical power to detect the effects predicted by standard risk models. Nevertheless, larger studies or pooled studies will be needed to investigate disease subgroups. The main challenge is to accurately assess children's individual exposure to radiation from natural sources and from other sources, as well as potentially confounding non-radiation exposures, in such large study populations. For this, the study groups should learn from each other to improve exposure estimation and develop new ways to validate exposure models with personal dosimetry.

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Section: Residential Radonsupporting

confidence: 85%

Epidemiological studies of natural sources of radiation and childhood cancer: current challenges and future perspectives

Mazzei-Abba¹,

Folly²,

Coste³

et al. 2020

J. Radiol. Prot.

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“…In conjunction with other researchers, CCRG has undertaken a study of this kind. The first phase of this study has been published 61,62 . Cases (27,447) were those born and diagnosed in GB during 1980–2006 and were drawn from the National Registry of Childhood Tumours (NRCT).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood cancer research in oxford III: The work of CCRG on ionising radiation

et al. 2018

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The work of CCRG has been influential in developing understanding of the causes of 'clusters' of childhood cancer and the risks arising from exposure to ionising radiation both natural and man-made. Some clusters around nuclear installations have certainly been observed, but ionising radiation does not seem to be a plausible cause. The group's work has also been instrumental in discounting the hypothesis that paternal preconception irradiation was a cause of childhood cancers and has demonstrated an increased leukaemia risk for children exposed to higher levels of natural gamma-ray radiation.

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“…Kendall et al (Kendall et al 2013a) provided a detailed assessment of errors in dose in the British study, and suggested that these would probably have little effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kendall et al (Kendall et al 2013a) estimated gamma-ray dose rates (including the directly ionising component of cosmic rays) at the birth location of study subjects as the mean for the English County District or comparable administrative areas in Wales and Scotland.…”

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confidence: 99%

A review of studies of childhood cancer and natural background radiation

Kendall

Little

Wakeford

2021

International Journal of Radiation Biology

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Purpose:The projected existence and magnitude of carcinogenic effects of ionising radiation at low doses and low dose rates is perhaps the most important issue in radiation protection today. Studies of childhood cancer and natural background radiation have the potential to throw direct light on this question, into a dose range below a few tens of mSv. This paper describes the studies that have been undertaken and their context, discusses some problems that arise and summarizes the present position.Conclusions: Many such studies have been undertaken, but most were too small to have a realistic chance of detecting the small effects expected from such low doses, based on risk projections from higher exposures. Case-control or cohort studies are to be preferred methodologically to ecological studies, but can be prone to problems of registration/participation bias.Interview-based studies of the requisite size would be prohibitively expensive and would undoubtedly also run into problems of participation bias.Register-based studies can be very large and are free of participation bias. However, they need to estimate the radiation exposure of study subjects using models rather than individual measurements in the homes of those concerned. At present no firm conclusions can be drawn from the studies that have been published to date. Further data and perhaps pooled studies offer a way forward.

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Results of a record-based case-control study of natural background radiation and the incidence of childhood cancers in Great Britain

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Epidemiological studies of natural sources of radiation and childhood cancer: current challenges and future perspectives

Epidemiological studies of natural sources of radiation and childhood cancer: current challenges and future perspectives

Childhood cancer research in oxford III: The work of CCRG on ionising radiation

A review of studies of childhood cancer and natural background radiation

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