2.A 20-year follow-up study on the effects of long-term exposure to thorium dust.
Xing'an CHEN ; Yonge CHENG ; Huijuan XIAO ; Guodong FENG ; Yunhui DENG ; Zhiliang FENG ; Lian CHEN ; Xuanmao HAN ; Yingjie YANG ; Zhihuan DONG ; Rong ZHEN
Chinese Medical Journal 2003;116(5):692-694
OBJECTIVETo investigate the possible effects of long-term exposure to dust containing thorium and thoron progeny on dust-exposed miners.
METHODSA negative, high voltage, exhaled thoron progeny measurement system was used to estimate the miners' thorium lung burden.
RESULTSThe highest thorium lung burden of 638 miners was 11.11 Bq. The incidence of stage 0(+) pneumoconiosis was higher among dust-exposed miners. Lung cancer mortality of the dust-exposed miners was significantly higher than that of controls (P < 0.005).
CONCLUSIONThere is a difference in cancer rates between those who have long-term exposure to dust containing thorium (in which carcinogenic ThO(2) and SiO(2) exist) and thoron progeny and those who have not.
Air Pollutants, Radioactive ; adverse effects ; Body Burden ; China ; epidemiology ; Dust ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; Mining ; Occupational Diseases ; epidemiology ; Occupational Exposure ; adverse effects ; Thorium ; adverse effects
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