| This analytic data file set consists of two files constructed for another analysis of operations workers initially employed during 1944 to 1978 at the Hanford Site, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1993. This study by George Kneale and Alice Stewart examined the relationship between low-level occupational radiation doses among Hanford workers and mortality from specific causes. The approach taken in this study makes new use of standard epidemiologic procedures and revealed evidence of increased cancer risk at low dose levels. |
| The reanalysis does not indicate that radiation is more likely to cause leukemia than solid tumors or that there is a reduced cancer effectiveness of radiation at low dose levels. However, the estimated proportion of radiogenic cancers was much higher for the 175 non-fatal cancers than for the 1,732 fatal cases. |
| There is one record in each of the two analytic files corresponding to each of the 44,101 workers. The cohort was restricted to individuals who worked at Hanford between 1944 and 1978. The follow-up period for this reanalysis runs from January 1944 through December 1986. The first file, HFS93A03_d1 (HFS93A03_1), contains demographic data, off-site doses, internal exposure data, annual external doses, work history, and vital status data. The second file, HFS93A03_d2 (HFS93A03_2), contains work history and internal exposure data. Due to the many job titles at Hanford, six job categories were established: professional, managerial, clerical, crafts, blue collar, other, and not specified. Data include the date on which a worker was first monitored (by urinalysis) for internal deposition as well as the dates on which the result was first greater than zero (i.e., measurable), the result was greater than the standard error, and the result was greater than twice the standard error. Results of in vivo counting include the years at which depositions of one, two, or three nuclides were detected. There were 9,443 deaths identified through the follow- up period of December 31, 1986. |
| Workers at Hanford were involved in a variety of activities resulting in exposure to radiation, including reactor operations, chemical separation processes, treatment and storage of hazardous waste, and biological and engineering research. Personal dosimeters were first used in 1944. The doses contained in the file are expressed in centirad. Internal exposure data were collected and evaluated for all individuals who worked in locations where there was a potential for intake of radioactive materials. |
