Cancer mortality among French nuclear contract workers

• Published in: American journal of industrial medicine Vol. 52; no. 12; pp. 916 - 925
• Main Authors: Guérin, Sylvie, Richard, Gaël, Biau, Alain, Lebre, Sophie, Crescini, Danièle, Haddy, Nadia, Guldner, Laurence, Paoletti, Catherine, Hill, Catherine, de Vathaire, Florent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01-12-2009; Wiley-Liss; Wiley
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biological and medical sciences; cancer; Cause of Death; Cohort Studies; Contract Services; contracting companies; Epidemiology; Female; France; Healthy Worker Effect; Humans; ionizing radiation; Life Sciences; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; mortality; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced - mortality; Nuclear Power Plants; nuclear workers; Occupational Diseases - mortality; Photons; Radiometry; Reference Values; Retrospective Studies; Survival Rate; Tumors; Young Adult; France; Europe; Human; Contracting service; Nuclear industry; Mortality; Malignant tumor; Occupational exposure; nuclear workers; Epidemiology; Ionizing radiation; Nuclear power plant; Worker; Dosimetry; Contract; Occupational medicine; contracting companies; Cancer; Healthy Worker Effect; Occupational Diseases; dosimetry; major clinical study; Humans; Middle Aged; Reference Values; cause of death; nuclear industry; occupational exposure; Neoplasms; follow up; 80 and over; Young Adult; epidemiology; Contract Services; respiratory tract tumor; Radiometry; Retrospective Studies; female; France; worker; human; cancer localization; contract; electric power plant; aged; Survival Rate; Nuclear Power Plants; Photons; digestive system tumor; article; population; controlled study; Radiation-Induced; cancer mortality; Adolescent; neoplasm; adult; ionizing radiation; male; Cohort Studies
• ISSN: 0271-3586; 1097-0274
• DOI: 10.1002/ajim.20768

Background
Nuclear workers from French contracting companies have received higher doses than workers from Electricité de France (EDF) or Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA).
Methods
A cohort study of 9,815 workers in 11 contracting companies, monitored for exposure to ionizing radiation between 1967 and 2000 were followed up for a median duration of 12.5 years. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed.
Results
Between 1968 and 2002, 250 deaths occurred. Our study demonstrated a clear healthy worker effect (HWE) with mortality attaining half that expected from national mortality statistics (SMR = 0.54, 95% CI = [0.47–0.61]). The HWE was lower for all cancers (SMR = 0.65) than for non‐cancer deaths (SMR = 0.46). The analysis by cancer site showed no excess compared with the general population. Significant trends were observed according to the level of exposure to ionizing radiation for deaths from cancer, deaths from digestive cancer and deaths from respiratory cancer.
Conclusions
The mortality of nuclear workers from contracting companies is very low compared to French national mortality. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:916–925, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.