Second Analysis of Mortality of Nuclear Industry Workers in Japan, 1986-1997

Abstract Iwasaki, T., Murata, M., Ohshima, S., Miyake, T., Kudo, S., Inoue, Y., Narita, M., Yoshimura, T., Akiba, S., Tango, T., Yoshimoto, Y., Shimizu, Y., Sobue, T., Kusumi, S., Yamagishi, C. and Matsudaira, H. Second Analysis of Mortality of Nuclear Industry Workers in Japan, 1986–1997. Radiat. Res. 159, 228–238 (2003). A cohort study of nuclear industry workers was initiated in 1990 to determine the possible health effects of low-level radiation. A total of 5,527 deaths were ascertained among 176,000 male workers who had been retrospectively and/or prospectively followed for an average of 7.9 years during the observation period 1986–1997. Statistical analyses were made mainly on the prospective follow-up outcome of 120,000 workers followed for an average of 4.5 years. The standardized mortality ratio (and its 95% confidence interval) was 0.94 (0.90, 0.97) for 2,934 cases of all causes combined and 0.86 (0.82, 0.91) for 1,305 cases of non-malignant diseases combined, which suggested a healthy worker ef...