Studies on the Ozyorsk population: dosimetry

The Mayak Production Association (MPA) is located in the northern part of Chelyabinsk Oblast. Operating areas are about 10 km from the town of Ozyorsk, the largest populated area nearby, but other nearby populated areas include Novogorny Village, New Metlino Village, and Kyshtym Town. The long-term objective of this (unfunded) project is reconstruction of the time-dependent individual radiation doses to residents of Ozyorsk and the surrounding area from atmospheric releases of radionuclides from the facilities of the Mayak Production Association (MPA). The time period is from 1948 to the present. This information could be used in several epidemiologic studies of the regional population. Two pilotscale studies of thyroid disease among residents of Ozyorsk have found an increase in thyroid nodules among exposed persons compared to unexposed persons and an increase in thyroid carcinoma in Ozyorsk. The success of follow-on studies would depend upon the availability of thyroid doses proposed to be provided. The availability of credible thyroid doses would allow the quantification of risk of thyroid disease and the evaluation of factors such as host susceptibility, age and time effects, and gender differences. Perhaps more importantly, studies of the Ozyorsk residents would not be encumbered with the complications associated withmore » previous early detection screening, as in the Chernobyl studies, or previous medical conditions, as in the I-131 medical studies. The releases to the atmosphere from MPA stacks are a source of exposure to other populations that are the subject of epidemiologic investigation; these populations include the Extended Techa River Cohort (JCCRER Direction 1), the MPA workers (JCCRER Direction 2), and proposed studies of the East Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT) cohort. The doses received by these cohorts from atmospheric releases at the MPA represent a confounding variable that cannot be considered without the information proposed to be provided.« less