| This analytic data file set consists of 12 files generated for a nested case-control study of respiratory cancer through 1982 for workers in selected occupations employed at four uranium processing or fabrication operations in Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee, where there was potential for uranium dust exposure by Elizabeth Dupree, et al. |
| The analysis files contain 1,580 observations for the original 790 cases and their matched controls. Cases were identified as those workers employed at least 183 days in any one of these four operations who died before January 1, 1983, with respiratory cancer (ICDA8 codes 162.0 through 163.9, inclusive) listed anywhere on the death certificate. Each case was matched with one control. The main analysis file is MFD94A01_d1, which contains demographic, work history, medical history, and smoking data. The essential exposure files are MFD94A01_d2 (for internal radiation doses), MFD94A01_d3 (for external radiation doses), and MFD94A01_d4 (for thorium, radium, and radon exposures). MFD94A01_d2 and MFD94A01_d3 contain cumulative doses (mrem) lagged 10 years and 20 years before the date of death for each case and matched control. In addition, for each study member, there are annual doses by separate operations, annual doses across operations, and annual cumulative doses across operations. MFD94A01_d4 contains the number of years with exposure to thorium, to radium, and to radon lagged 0, 10, and 20 years before the date of death for each case and matched control. Also, there are annual individual indicators of exposure to thorium, radium, and radon. The file MFD94A01_d7 includes employment and job title data. MFD94A01_d5 and MFD94A01_d8 contain cumulative internal dose case-control data. MFD94A01_d6 and MFD94A01_d11 contain smoking history data. MFD94A01_d9 contains medical data. MFD94A01_d10 contains average daily external exposure. MFD94A01_d12 contains average daily internal exposure. |
| Two of the four operations were at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The first was a uranium enrichment operation managed by TEC from 1943 to June 1947. The second, managed by Union Carbide Corporation from June 1947 through the end of the study, was a weapons fabrication operation and was referred to in the study as Y-12. The third was the Uranium Division of MCW located in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1942 to 1958 and in Weldon Springs, Missouri, from 1958 to plant shutdown in 1966. The FMPC, located in Fernald, Ohio, was the fourth operation. It came online in 1951 and, along with MCW, processed ore concentrate into uranium metal. MCW also processed radiumbearing pitchblend ores. Of the 787 pairs, 567 had been employed in the TEC operation with 428 of these workers employed only in this operation. Information collected on all study members included smoking status, socioeconomic status, complete work histories, and radiation monitoring data. Annual doses to the lung resulting from deposited uranium, which was mainly insoluble, were estimated using methodologies appropriate to the type of radiation exposure data that had been collected from each operation. The radiation dose to the lung arose almost exclusively from alpha radiation, but annual whole-body doses from gamma radiation were determined for the FMPC, MCW, and Y-12 workers who had personnel monitoring data available for calculating them. In addition, potential for production exposure to thorium existed in all but the TEC operation and to radium and radon at MCW. The mean cumulative lung doses for cases and controls were 1.52 and 1.49 cGy (rad), respectively, and medians were 0.38 and 0.43 cGy, respectively. |
