Objective
The overall objective of the proposal is to study the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effect in humans after exposure to ionising radiation from nuclear accidents, "technical releases", and fall-out after nuclear weapons testing in the New Independent States (NIS). The current proposal is aimed at a better understanding of the mechanisms of ionising radiation by quantifying the risk from internal and external protracted low dose exposure. Questions concerning risk in relation to dose, dose rate, attained age, susceptibility in different tissues, are still waiting to be answered. Risk in relation to age at exposure will be a central issue. In an attempt to answer these questions evaluations of the consequences of previous nuclear occurrences will be used. In the past there have been no known cohorts, apart from underground miners, exposed to continuous low-dose irradiation of a dose level that allows studies of stochastic health effects in humans. Studies of cancer risks in these populations are an important challenge, not only to the scientific community, but to the emerging co-operation between the European Community (EC) and NIS. The three Work Packages in the present proposal address the same question and the results will be analysed and compared. The conclusions will be compared with previous findings and will hopefully give us further information in an area, i.e. radiation carcinogenesis, where our current knowledge is limited. The proposal includes three major cohorts
1. The Mayak Nuclear Weapons Plant, the first established in the former Soviet Union, was started in 1948 in Southern Urals. The production of plutonium and other radioactive isotopes resulted in exposure to several thousand nuclear workers, primarily between 1949 and 1956.
2. The same nuclear weapons plant contaminated the Techa River and the residents along the river. The exposures were substantial, with a large numb of individuals receiving high cumulative doses of protracted low-dose radiation.
3. Inhabitants of the Altai region and populations in Kazakstan living outside the nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk between 1949 and 1962 were exposed repeatedly to fall-out from nuclear weapons tests.
Through the INCO-COPERNICUS programme will the three partners seek support with the Russian institutions included in the present proposal. Assessment of exposure and possible health effects on populations affected by past nuclear events in NIS is important.
Such clarification is essential not only for a normalisation of living conditions in affected regions, but also one of the basic conditions for reliable international agreements on securing radioactive materials in former military facilities. The findings of the proposed project will be invaluable in the future risk estimates for radiation protection and thus gain the inhabitants. The results are probably going to reduce the uncertainty about health effects from low dose, chronic radiation exposure. Cancer risk estimates after acute and continued exposures will be compared, to provide an observational basis for the dose and dose-rate-reduction-factor that is used in risk estimates for radiation protection purposes.
This proposal is co-ordinated with the proposal submitted by Dr. Hans Storm, DCS, on individuals exposed after the Chernohvl accident.
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
171 76 Stockholm
Sweden