Nuclear industry family study

Abstract

The offspring of men who work in the nuclear industry are not at an increased risk of foetal death or congenital disease in childhood, concludes a study published in The Lancet on 14 October 2000. Pat Doyle and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, aimed to assess whether the offspring of men and women occupationally exposed to ionising radiation were at an increased risk of foetal death and congenital malformation. They analysed pregnancies reported by a population of nuclear industry workers in the UK, employed at establishments operated by the Atomic Energy Authority, Atomic Weapons Establishment and British Nuclear Fuels. Employment and radiation monitoring data supplied by employers was linked to each pregnancy. Around 11 700 men and 1900 women reported one or more pregnancies conceived after employment within the nuclear industry; men reported 23 676 singleton pregnancies and the women 3585. The risks of foetal death and congenital malformation were not related to whether the father had been monitored before conception or to the dose of radiation received. Among pregnancies reported by women, the risk of early (before 13 weeks of gestation) miscarriage was higher if the mother had been monitored before conception but there was no trend with dose. The risk of stillbirth (foetal death after 24 weeks gestation) was also higher if the mother had been monitored before conception, but the finding was based on only 29 cases (13 exposed). The risk of any major malformation, or of specific groups of malformations, was not associated with maternal monitoring, or dose received, before conception. The author of the study commented that they found no evidence of a link between exposure to low-level ionising radiation before conception and increased risk of adverse reproductive outcome in men working in the nuclear industry. Similarly for women there was no evidence of an association between monitoring before conception and malformation in offspring. The findings relating maternal preconceptual monitoring to increased risk of foetal death are based on small numbers and are difficult to interpret.