Cancer mortality patterns of a group of U.S. uranium miners and millers were studied, and their age-race-cause-specific mortality experience was compared with that of the general male population of the Colorado Plateau area. Among white uranium millers, total and cause-specific mortality did not differ significantly from that expected. Among white uranium miners, 218 deaths were observed as compared with 148.7 expected (P<0.01). Categories in which death significantly exceeded that expected were: 1) respiratory neoplasms among uranium miners with 5 or more years underground experience (11 observed as compared with 1.1 expected); 2) “all other causes,” in the same group of miners—a reflection of pulmonary fibrosis and its complications; and 3) accidents, particularly in mines, regardless of type of employment or duration of underground mining experience. A possible explanation was sought for the tenfold increase in respiratory cancer among long-term underground uranium miners. This excess was not attributable to age, smoking, nativity, heredity, urbanization, self-selection, diagnostic accuracy, and prior hard-rock mining or other ore constituents including silica dust. The evidence presently available implicates airborne radiation in the genesis of this increase in respiratory cancer among U.S. uranium miners.
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Wagoner et al. (1964) studied this question.