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Important Research Findings
| Cancer risks among radiologists and radiologic technologists: review of epidemiologic studies
(2004
) | | | Radiologists and radiologic technologists were among the earliest occupational groups exposed to ionizing radiation and represent a large segment of the working population exposed to radiation from human-made sources. The authors reviewed epidemiologic data on cancer risks from eight cohorts of over 270,000 radiologists and technologists in various countries. The most consistent finding was increased mortality due to leukemia among early workers employed before 1950, when radiation exposures were high. This, together with an increasing risk of leukemia with increasing duration of work in the early years, provided evidence of an excess risk of leukemia associated with occupational radiation exposure in that period. While findings on several types of solid cancers were less consistent, several studies provided evidence of a radiation effect for breast cancer and skin cancer.
| | | [Abstract] [PubMed] | | | | Trends in reproductive, smoking, and other chronic disease risk factors by birth cohort and race in a large occupational study population
(2002
) | | | Knowledge of trends in risk factors for cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases can help us understand historic disease patterns and help us anticipate future disease burdens. In order to help understand trends in chronic disease risk factors, we examined how height, smoking, and reproductive factors compared among each of 10 birth cohorts (born between the period before 1920 until after 1960) in the USRT cohort. Among the trends observed were that the proportion of young men (<18 years) smoking generally fell in each birth cohort after 1925, whereas the proportion of young women smoking rose for those born after 1925. Among women born since 1940, the mean age of menarche for white women has remained at 12.5 years, but has declined among black and Asian/Pacific Islander women.
| | | [Abstract] [PubMed] | | | | A health survey of radiologic technologists
(1992
) | | | This paper provides a general description of the study cohort and follow-up methods used in the first survey (mid-1980s). All individuals who were certified by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists for at least two years through 1982 were eligible for the study. We initially identified 143,517 eligible radiologic technologists and later added 2,505 technologists who were inadvertently missed, bringing the total cohort to 146,022. The cohort is primarily female (73%), and 58% were born before 1950 (mean year of birth, 1944). Technologists were certified between 1923 and 1980 (mean year of certification, 1968), mainly in radiography (92%). We sent the first survey to 132,454 living technologists for whom we had good addresses, of whom 90,305 completed and returned the mail questionnaire and another 14,324 technologists responded to a brief telephone interview. Mail questionnaire respondents provided information about their work history, personal medical radiation procedures, gynecologic and reproductive histories (women), diagnoses of cancer and other medical conditions, family history of cancer, and demographic (such as birth date, marital status) and lifestyle (such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption) characteristics.
| | | [Abstract] [PubMed] | | |
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