The German uranium miners cohort study: Feasibility and first results

Germany, the largest single cohort study on uranium miners to date is being conducted. The cohort includes about 64,000 corkers of the former Wismut c ompany in eastern Germany. Inclusion criteria were: a date of employment be tween 1946 and 1989, a minimum period of employment of 180 days, and comple te information on working history. Due to poor working conditions in the la te 1940s and early 1950s, miners were exposed to high levels of radiation, while later radiation exposure was significantly reduced. The aim of the co hort study is to evaluate the risk of lung cancer and other cancers associa ted with several indicators of exposure to radon and its progeny, with part icular attention to low levels of radiation. Radon exposure will be estimat ed by a detailed job-exposure matrix. Some information about smoking, dust and arsenic is already available. About 49,000 miners are defined as expose d (underground or processing), while the internal control group (surface on ly) consists of 15,000 workers. A total of 1,436 lung cancer deaths among c ohort members have been reported. The first mortality follow-up will be fin ished early in 2002, and a total of about 3,000 lung cancer deaths are expe cted by then. (C) 1999 by Radiation Research Society.