Objective
URANIUM MINERS STUDIES IN FRANCE
In 1994, a pooled analysis of data from 11 cohort studies in miners has been published by the National Cancer Institute in USA. This assessment of risk from underground exposure to Rn progeny is based on more than I million person-years and includes more than 2,600 lung cancer cases. The pooled analysis was able to study factors like age at first exposure, time since exposure, attained age, the influence of tobacco consumption was studied in some of the cohorts. Besides the well known effect of the cumulative exposure on cancer risk, an exposure-rate effect was also studied. However, most of these miners had received in the past relatively high annual exposures to radon. One of the purposes of our proposal is to estimate more precisely the influence of low exposure rate.This last point is crucial for the estimation of low occupational exposures, but also for estimation of the risk linked to life long exposure to domestic radon. We propose to create within this project of epidemiologists, involved in various uranium miners studies (in France, in Germany, and in Czech Republic) a close collaboration, in order to create more powerfull studies aiming to joint analyses, and to exchange our experience on risk assessment by close collaboration on methodology. NRPB, in charge of the statistical analysis of a nested case-control study within the cohort of Colorado Plateau miners, will act as a cosultant for the methodology of this nested case-control approach.
Nested case-control studies may be a better approach than cohort studies when estimating the influence of co-factors of the mining environment or of tobacco. The final aim of this European group would be a comprehensive report of the estimation of cancer risk linked to low radon and low dose-rate effect, taking in account, parallel to the results of the epidemiological studies also animal data testing different dose-rates. For this last part, we include as consultant IARC, familiar with examination of low exposure effects by combining animal and human data.
This project is conducted parallel in 2 workpackages: The first is involving cohort analysis, the second is closer to methodology of analysis of co-factors that could influence the linear dose-response relationship between cumulative radon exposure and lung cancer risk. The case-control approach has to be tested, before designing the definite common approach on the French and German miners. The cohort analysis between the French and Czech collaborators will be realised on a joint basis during the next years, aiming to a common publication. The German Wismut cohort will join this analysis in a second period, after validation of the dosimetry and vital status.
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
92265 Fontenay-aux-Roses
France