=> DATA FILE SET-LEVEL: RADPDW01
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=> indicates the hierarchical level of the current display Further description of the hierarchical organization of CEDR Structured Documentation
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Description:
This working data file set, prepared by The Center for Human Radiobiology at the Argonne National Laboratory, consists of 25 files generated the Internal Emitters Project which identified about 6,000 people with significant radium exposures, including about 3,257 individuals, mostly women, who worked in the dial painting industry that used radium in paint. Many were located and followed until death, in these cases, the cause of death and body content of radium are known. One study was published in Health Physics in 1993.
The Center for Human Radiobiology Information System is comprised of a set of files originally designed as working files, containing information that was continually being updated as new information was developed and new radiation exposure cases were added to the files. The program was terminated in 1990, so the files became static at that time. They thus show the state of the study at that date.
The Center for Human Radiobiology (CHR) was originally set up in 1967 at the Argonne National Laboratory to continue the studies of radium-exposed individuals started by Professor. R. D. Evans in the mid-1930s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). CHR was also to include the studies of radium-exposed individuals previously undertaken (1957-1967) by the New Jersey State Department of Health as the Radium Research Project, and the radium studies undertaken in 1951 by The Argonne National Laboratory and the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital. The working files from these organizations were transferred to the CHR and eventually integrated into a file system known as the CHR Information System (CHRIS).
The level of detail for each individual in the study is not uniform, but there are some data on general demographics, smoking and social history, radium exposure history, measurements of radium body content, clinical examinations results, clinical laboratory results, observed medical abnormalities, calculated doses, radiographic surveys, and causes of death.
All of the files in the CHRIS system were originally set up for the collection of information about radium- exposed individuals. However, individuals exposed to other radioelements were often examined by CHR, and the data obtained were entered in CHRIS. Case numbers of the form aa-bbb (for example 00-001) were assigned to most of the individuals studied. The two digit prefix identifies people with some common characteristics. Originally these two digits indicated the laboratory where the case was studied, i.e. 00 was MIT, 03 was ANL, and 05 was New Jersey. Many of these original numbers remain, but the system was changed to indicate other characteristics. The present system reserves the prefixes 00 to 15 for individuals exposed to radium, 20 for uranium miners, 30 miscellaneous, 35 for Th-232 other than Thorotrast, 40 for Pu-239, 50 for general controls, 51-59 for miscellaneous samples, not identified with an individual case, 60 for Thorotrast cases, and 98 and 99 for temporary case numbers.
The 25 files comprising this data file set include data containing demographic, administrative, and exposure data (SAC and OLDKEY), three files consisting of data concerning Lindsay Chemical Co. (LIN, LINX, and LINHQ), radium deposition and retention data (AECRDR and AEDOSERA), two dose calculation files (TDOSE and TDOSERA), a death certificate follow-up (DCF), government agency followup (GAF), radium deposition and retention data (TDOSE and TDOSERA), skeletal radiograph data (XSCORE), bone scan measurements (BSVIVO), measurements of radium in vivo (VVRA and VVLIN), blood chemistry (BCS), urinalysis and hematology (URH), special tests (SPCL), physical measurements and medical/dental histories (EXAM), data descriptive of the ranges of several variables (LBNOR), medical abnormalities (SNOP), chemical and radiochemistry (CHEM and SAMPLE), and gamma measurement data for bones and skeleton (BONES and SKEL).
Case numbers of the form L-nnnn (for example L-0001) were assigned to employees of the Lindsay Chemical Company. In addition, case numbers of the form LX-nnnn were used for visitors to the plant and LC-nnnn were used for controls. The data from this study of the effects of inhalation of dust containing Th-232 and daughter products as well as rare earth elements are contained in four files. These are LIN, LINX, LINHQ, and VVLIN. Additional information may be found in the files DCF, GAF, OLDKEY, and SNOP.
Number of data files: 25
Notes: Values supplied in this data file set for 'data type' were derived during the process of installing the data files into CEDR. For example, variables containing even one instance in scientific notation are assigned a 'd 'character' rather than 'floating point'. These value do not necessarily match the 'data type' specified in the Center For Human Radiobiology codebook documents.
Notes: July 23, 2001. An earlier version of this overview indicated that "Researchers identified about 6,000 people with significant radium exposures, including about 500 individuals, mostly women, who worked in the industry that used radium in paint." The correct number of individuals working as dial painters was 3,170 women, 85 men, 1 record was coded as sex unknown, and 1 record had no code for sex, resulting in a total of 3,257 records.
Contact Information:
Rowland, Robert
Director, Center for Human Radiobiology, Argonne National Laboratory.
Consultant, Subject Specialist in Radium Dial Painter data sets, CEDR.
Email: ra226@earthlink.net
Kotek, Thomas J.
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439
(630) 252-5705
Fax: 252-4336
Email: kotektj@anl.gov
Identifier: DE95006146