The single analytic file (HFLUNGCA) contains one record for each of the study years 1965 through 1980 (or year of death if earlier) for each of the workers qualifying as a lung-cancer case, or selected as a subcohort member from a stratified random sample of cohort members. White male operations workers who died of lung cancer qualified as cases if they were monitored for external radiation for at least three years and terminated employment on or after January 1, 1965. Questions about tobacco use became a routine part of the periodic medical examination in 1965. Termination in or after this year allowed most workers to have a least one examination during the study period. The criteria for cohort members was identical except for the diagnosis of lung cancer, although this did not exclude their selection. The lung-cancer cases were stratified into year-of-birth groups in 5-year intervals. These intervals were used as strata for identifying eligible persons for the subcohort. For each stratum, at least five times as many subcohort members as cases were randomly selected.
86 workers qualified as lung-cancer cases. This resulted in the random selection of 445 subcohort members from a total of 5445 eligible workers. 13 of those selected also qualified as lung-cancer cases. One of the 86 cases and three of the 445 subcohort members were excluded from the analyses because their medical records could not be located. Vital status was ascertained through December 31, 1980, the study end date. 344 of the 442 subcohort members remained alive through the end of the study. Internal as well as external radiation exposures were examined.
Workers at the Hanford Site were involved in a variety of activities that resulted in their exposure to radiation, including reactor operations, chemical separation of reactor fuel to obtain plutonium, treatment and storage of hazardous waste, and biological and engineering research. Personal dosimeters (film or thermoluminescent) have been used since 1944. Annual whole-body doses to penetrating external radiation are presented in units of millisieverts. Quality factors of 10 for fast neutrons, 3 for slow neutrons, and 1 for photons and electrons were used in the conversion of exposure to dose. Bioassay programs to detect exposures to internally deposited radionuclides, primarily transuranics, were also initiated in 1944. The potential for inhalation of uranium in this study was evaluated by reviewing each worker's uranium bioassay records. It was assumed that the number of bioassay measurements provided a rough indication of potential for exposure. Bioassay programs for uranium were primarily concerned with monitoring for uptake by the kidney and did not directly provide indications of lung dose.
Pacific Northwest Laboratory P.O. Box 999 Richland, WA 99352 (509) 376-4308
Agency Funding Study: Office of Health and Environmental Research U.S. Department of Energy
Additional comments: The Research Department of the Hanford Environmental Health Foundation (HEHF) provided vital statistics, job history and mortality data. The Health Physics Department of Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) provided external dosimetry and internal deposition data. The PNL Statistics Section linked and consolidated the information.
Jeff A. Buchanan Phone (509) 376-4308, FTS 444-4308 FAX (509) 376-4533, FTS 444-4533 Internet address is JA_Buchanan@pnl.gov