Uranium dust exposure and lung cancer risk in four uranium processing operations

We examined the relation between uranium dust exposure and lung cancer mortality among workers employed in four uranium processing or fabrication operations located in Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. Among workers who had at least 30 years of potential follow-up, we identified 787 lung cancer cases from death certificates and matched one control to each case. Health physicists estimated individual annual lung doses from occupational exposure primarily to insoluble uranium compounds, using contemporary monitoring data. With a 10-year lag, cumulative lung doses ranged from 0 to 137 centigrays (cGy) for cases and from 0 to 80 cGy for controls. Health physicists assigned annual external radiation doses to workers having personal monitoring records. Archivists collected smoking information from occupational medical records. Odds ratios for lung cancer mortality for seven cumulative internal dose groups did not demonstrate increasing risk with increasing dose. We found an odds ratio of 2.0 for those exposed to 25 cGy and higher, but the 95% confidence interval of 0.20 to 20 showed great uncertainty in this estimate. There was a suggestion of an exposure effect for workers hired at age 45 years or older. Further analyses for cumulative external doses and exposures to thorium, radium, and radon did not reveal any clear association between exposure and increased risk, nor did dichotomizing workers by facility.