Although women have been employed in the nuclear weapons industry since its inception, little is known about the potential health effects that women may experience as a result of work related exposures to ionizing radiation and nonradiation hazards. Studies that have reported results for women have tended to suffer from small numbers of observations, short follow-up, young average age of cohort members and a lack of exposure information. Despite these shortcoming, suggestive but inconsistent elevations for several types of neoplasms have been reported including several known to be associated with ionizing radiation; and for several nonneoplastic conditions. This study will overcome the shortcomings just mentioned by combining cohorts of female nuclear workers from 12 U.S. nuclear weapons facilities; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Zia Company, Rocky Flats, Hanford, Mound, Savannah River, Oak Ridge X-10, Y-12 and K-25, Fernald, Linde and Pantex for the purpose of conducting a retrospective cohort mortality study of neoplastic and nonneoplastic health endpoints. The long term objectives of this research are to develop precise risk estimates for exposures to low doses and low dose rates of external and internal ionizing radiation or to nonradioactive hazards, determine if combined exposures increase risks over single outcomes to better control for multiple exposure and other confounding factors, and to investigate morbidity for conditions that are not usually fatal but that may be related to exposures received in weapons facilities.
The specific aims of this study are to combine data for female employees from the 12 facilities described above, calculate individual doses or exposures to radiation and nonradiation hazards, estimate the relative risk of mortality from neoplastic and nonneoplastic disease and the amount of uncertainty associated with these relative risk estimates, and to estimate the feasibility of conducting nested case- control, case-cohort and morbidity studies among female nuclear workers. Results from this study will fill a major gap in our knowledge regarding the health of female nuclear workers.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01OH003274-01
Application #
2277898
Study Section
Safety and Occupational Health Study Section (SOH)
Project Start
1994-09-30
Project End
1996-09-29
Budget Start
1994-09-30
Budget End
1995-09-29
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas Medical Br Galveston
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
041367053
City
Galveston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77555