Use of Screening Dose to Evaluate the Work-relatedness of Cancers Occurring among Korean Radiation Workers.
- Author:
Meeseon JEONG
1
;
Young Woo JIN
;
Hyun Sul LIM
;
Chong Soon KIM
Author Information
1. Radiation Health Research Institute, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., Korea. ywjin@khnp.co.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Radiation;
Workers' compensation;
Occupational diseases;
Probability;
Causality;
Uncertainty
- MeSH:
Awards and Prizes;
Compensation and Redress;
Korea;
Mass Screening*;
Occupational Diseases;
Uncertainty;
Workers' Compensation
- From:Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
2007;19(3):196-203
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVES: To propose a screening dose based on the probability of causation (PC) to simplify the evaluation procedure for the work-relatedness of the cancers occurring among Korean radiation workers. METHODS: Under the PC uncertainty distribution, the screening dose was defined in which the maximum PC is equivalent to 50% for single exposure to radiation, after which the values were calculated according to three significance levels: 90%, 95%, and 99%. By using the screening doses for each cancer, we also predicted the number of compensations for the occupational cancers among the current Korean radiation workers to determine a reasonable criterion for the significance level. RESULTS: If the cumulative dose received by a radiation worker with cancer is less than the screening dose, then PC can not be greater than 50%, i.e., the case can not be awarded as an occupational disease. The numbers of compensation cases for a future decade were predicted to be 3-5, 4-6, and 6-10 at the significance levels of 90%, 95%, and 99%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The procedure to evaluate the occupational disease was greatly simplified by using the screening dose for evaluation. A criterion of 95% was recommended as the PC upper limit following consideration for the results of the predicted cases for compensation and the economic circumstances in Korea.
