| This data file set contains one analytic file prepared for a case-control cohort mortality study of 241 LANL workers exposed to plutonium by George Voelz, et al. |
| This file, LAHSWA04_d1, was generated in 1993 to 1994 for a historical cohort analysis of 241 plutonium-exposed workers employed at LANL, the Zia Company (Zia), or the Manhattan Project. The acronym HSW used in the file's name means Health Study of Workers as indicated in the report. Data for 7,225 controls from the Zia and LANL populations are also included. The analysis sought to determine whether mortality among these workers differed significantly from the general population of males and females in the United States and whether the males were at an increased risk of dying from cancer than the group of unexposed 7,225 male controls selected from the LANL and Zia cohorts. |
| This file contains demographic and exposure data for 224 white males and 17 females who were employed at the Los Alamos site during World War II and who represented the most highly exposed group of plutonium workers at LANL as of December 31, 1974. Also included is information for 6,452 white male controls selected from the LANL cohort matching the 224 plutonium exposed males on race, age, and hire date. There is also information for 773 male Hispanic controls selected from the radiation monitored subgroup from the Zia cohort (the only Zia group with sufficient demographic information) to approximate the ratio of Hispanic to non-Hispanic males in the 241-member cohort as closely as possible in the controls. None of the males in the control population have significant depositions of plutonium. Demographic information was abstracted from personnel records available for hires through December 31, 1977, for the LANL and Manhattan Project workers and through December 31, 1978 for the Zia workers. These data were supplemented with information from death certificates. Employment histories have not been updated since December 31, 1977, for the LANL workers and December 31, 1978, for the Zia workers. Demographic variables included date of birth, hire and term dates, ethnicity, race, sex, and education level. |
| Death information for the controls was last obtained in 1992 with a submission to NDI. Data were available from 1979 through 1990. Pre-1979 death information was available from earlier submissions to SSA. The 241-member cohort was actively traced in June of 1990 and vital status was ascertained for all members of the cohort. A study end date of June 1990 is assigned based on the death information provided by the NDI and the tracing effort for the 241-member cohort. Some deaths after the study end date were recorded but death information after end of study is not complete. Causes of death were coded in ICDA8. |
| The sources of occupational radiation exposures were external radiation, primarily gamma, and internal deposition of plutonium-238 and plutonium-239. Pocket chambers or film dosimeters were used for personnel monitoring from 1944 through the end of 1979, when they were replaced with thermoluminescent dosimeters. Formal bioassay programs to monitor for internal exposures were begun in 1944. Both external and internal radiation exposure data are available for all controls and the 241-member cohort. These are given as three arrays representing annual exposures in centirem for the years 1943 to 1990 for plutonium-239, plutonium-238, and external ionizing radiation. For all plutonium-monitored workers, first sample dates for plutonium-239 and plutonium-238 are included. For some plutonium-monitored workers, insufficient data were available to allow an estimate of their plutonium deposition or their deposition is known to be less than 0.3 nCi but cannot be determined exactly using available techniques. These workers are flagged but have no information available for their actual plutonium depositions. Values for external ionizing radiation are given as annual whole-body penetrating doses that are computed as the sum of penetrating gamma, tritium, and neutron components. All radiation exposure values are reported in centirem. |
