Cancer in the offspring of radiation workers: a record linkage study

Abstract

Objectives: To test the "Gardner hypothesis" that childhood leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma can be caused by fathers' exposure to ionising radiation before the conception of the child, and, more generally, to investigate whether such radiation exposure of either parent is a cause of childhood cancer. Design: Case-control study. Setting: Great Britain.

Childhood cancer in the offspring born in 1921–1984 to US radiologic technologists

“…Consistent with our results, most previous studies have not provided strong support for an association between childhood cancer and parental preconception exposures to either low or high doses of atomic bomb radiation (Izumi et al, 2003a, b), medical or nuclear occupational radiation (Kinlen et al, 1993;McLaughlin et al, 1993;Roman et al, 1993Roman et al, , 1996Draper et al, 1997;Pobel and Viel, 1997), or therapeutic or diagnostic medical radiation (Kallen et al, 1998;Sankila et al, 1998;Little, 1999;Shu et al, 2002;Patton et al, 2004;Nagarajan and Robison, 2005). A notable exception (Gardner et al, 1990) examined the incidence of leukaemia/non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (LNHL) diagnosed at an age of o25 years in individuals living near the Sellafield nuclear facility in England, which included 74 cases of LNHL (14 in the offspring of fathers employed at Sellafield).…”

“…The case excess was largely confined to the neighbouring village of Seascale (Cumbria, England). Subsequent independent investigations conducted in England, France, Scotland, and Canada have failed to support this association (Kinlen et al, 1993;McLaughlin et al, 1993;Draper et al, 1997;Pobel and Viel, 1997). The alternative hypothesis for Gardner's findings of population mixing (Kinlen, 1988) has been supported by several studies (Little, 1999;McNally and Eden, 2004).…”

The Seascale cluster: a probable explanation

“…It made no contribution to another cluster in young persons in Egremont, 7 km north of Sellafield (Wakeford and Parker, 1996) and could not account for the excess recorded near Dounreay in Scotland nor near two nuclear sites in the south of England, nor even for the whole of the cluster observed in Seascale, which as Kinlen (1993) showed was not limited to children born there. In these circumstances, it seemed that the association that was observed by Gardner et al (1990) between paternal irradiation and leukaemia in young people born and resident in the West Cumbrian Health District was most readily explained by chance, a conclusion that has subsequently been supported by the results of two large surveys of the risk of cancer in the offspring of nuclear workers, neither of which has provided any evidence for such an association outside the original confines of the Seascale cluster (Draper et al, 1997;Roman et al, 1999).…”

Leucémies chez les moins de 25 ans autour d'installations nucléaires en France et à létranger : revue des études épidémiologiques descriptives

“…Très récem-ment, les auteurs d'une étude de grande ampleur portant sur l'ensemble des cas de leucémies infantiles diagnostiqués en Grande-Bretagne (13621 cas / 15995 témoins) ont conclu que leurs résultats ne soutiennent pas cette hypothèse (Draper et al, 1997a;Draper et al, 1997b). La prise en compte de l'ensemble des résultats aujourd'hui disponibles conduit à l'abandon de l'hypothèse de Gardner (Doll et al, 1994;Little et al, 1995).…”