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WORKERS exposed to radiation in uranium processing plants may run an
increased risk of developing lung cancer two decades later, according to a study
commissioned by British Nuclear Fuels.

Although there is some evidence that uranium miners can contract lung cancer
from the dust they inhale, there is scant evidence that workers in facilities
where the radioactive metal is processed are at risk. But now David McGeoghegan
from Westlakes Scientific Consulting in Cumbria has found a link between
radiation and lung cancers at the Springfields uranium fuel fabrication plant
near Preston in Lancashire.

He analysed the health records of 19 500 people employed at the plant between
1946 and 1995 and discovered that workers exposed to higher levels of radiation
suffered more lung cancers. In all, 225 people were diagnosed with the disease.
Of those, only two had received cumulative radiation doses during their time at
Springfields of more than 200 millisieverts. The recommended annual safety limit
for workers is 20 millisieverts.

The association between dose and disease only becomes statistically
significant 20 years after the dose was received, McGeoghegan says. He thinks
it鈥檚 possible that radiation caused some of the cancers, but points out that the
doses recorded are based solely on measurements of radiation outside the body.
He now plans to analyse radioactivity levels within the workers鈥� lungs, which
could be more directly related to the cancers.

The connection between lung cancer and radiation dose is potentially
important, says Michael Clark from Britain鈥檚 National Radiological Protection
Board. 鈥淭here is no proof that the association is causal, but it would be
sensible to investigate further.鈥�