MORTALITY THROUGH 1990 AMONG WHITE MALE WORKERS AT THE LOS-ALAMOS-NATIONAL-LABORATORY - CONSIDERING EXPOSURES TO PLUTONIUM AND EXTERNAL IONIZING-RADIATION

A cohort mortality study was conducted of 15,727 white men employed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear research and developmen t facility. Some of the workers at this facility have been exposed to various forms of ionizing radiation and other potentially hazardous ma terials. These analyses focused on whole-body ionizing radiation expos ures and internal depositions of plutonium. The results indicated that overall mortality among this cohort is quite low, even after nearly 3 0 y of follow-up. No cause of death was significantly elevated among p lutonium-exposed workers when compared with their unexposed coworkers; however, a rate ratio for lung cancer of 1.78 (95% CI = 0.79-3.99) wa s observed. A case of osteogenic sarcoma, a type of cancer related to plutonium exposure in animal studies, was also observed. Dose-response relationships for whole-body dose from external ionizing radiation an d tritium were observed for cancers of the brain/central nervous syste m, the esophagus, and Hodgkin's disease.