Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on November 23, 2004
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2005 113(1):123-125; doi:10.1093/rpd/nch427
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Scientific Note
Cataracts in retired actinide-exposed radiation workers
U. S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries, Washington State UniversityTriCities Richland, WA 99354, USA
* Corresponding author: zaptwice{at}verizon.net
Radiation-induced cataracts are predominantly of the posterior sub-capsular (PSC) type, whereas about 90% of age-related cataracts are of other types. Retired workers, likely to have transuranic body burdens, from three DOE-supported installations were questioned regarding their eye-care history and asked for permission to contact their eye-care providers regarding any cataracts. In 97 cases with lifetime exposure records 20 cases (20.6%) were reported to have PSC cataracts. However, of 24 individuals with recorded lifetime doses of 200600 mSv, nine (37.5%) had PSC cataracts, compared with 15.1% of 73 cases with doses of less than 200 mSv. This difference is statistically significant at the 5% level.