Active Projects
Russian Health Studies Program
Studies on the health effects of radiation exposure are conducted jointly by U.S. and Russian scientists at Mayak and the Southern Urals Biophysics Institute in Ozersk and at the Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine in Chelyabinsk. U.S. organizations currently involved in the studies are:
- Georgetown University;
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory;
- University of Illinois at Chicago; and
- University of Utah.
Russian organizations leading the studies are:
- Mayak Production Association;
- Southern Urals Biophysics Institute; and
- Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine.
The program is organized into three directions: community,
worker, and emergency response.
Direction
1: Community Health Effects Research
The major goal under this Direction is to analyze the carcinogenic risk of radiation exposure. For this purpose, 3 projects are being conducted:
- Project 1.1, Techa River Population Dosimetry;
- Project 1.2b, Techa River Population Cancer Morbidity and Mortality; and
- Project 1.4, Ozersk Population Dose Reconstruction from Mayak Operations.
Project 1.1: Techa River
Population Dosimetry
Principal Investigators:
R.F.: Marina
Degteva, Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine
U.S.: Lynn Anspaugh,
University of Utah
Brief Description: This dose reconstruction project is to develop improvements in the existing Techa River Dosimetry System 2000 for the members of the Extended Techa River Cohort (ETRC) by reducing the uncertainty of the doses, validating the doses, determining the feasibility of reconstructing doses from medical exposures, and reconstructing doses from other sources of radiation exposure, such as the East Urals Radioactive Trace and resuspension from deposits in Lake Karachai. The specific goal of this project is to update the reconstruction of external and internal radiation doses for approximately 30,000 individuals in the ETRC for use in companion epidemiologic studies of radiogenic leukemia and solid cancers (see below Project 1.2b, Techa River Population Cancer Morbidity).
Results to date: The specific aim of the completed phase of this project was to enhance reconstruction of doses for the ETRC cohort members. The database of preliminary village-average doses was expanded and upgraded to individualized doses and the uncertainty in the reconstructed doses was evaluated for the first time.
Projected end date: September 2014.
Project 1.2b: Techa River Population Cancer Morbidity and Mortality
Principal Investigators:
R.F.: Alexander
Akleyev, Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine
U.S.: Faith Davis, University of Illinois at Chicago
Brief Description: This epidemiologic study is designed to assess carcinogenic effects among populations exposed to offsite releases of radioactive materials from the Mayak nuclear facility. Discharges of radioactive wastes into the Techa River during the period 1950-1956 resulted in radiation exposures of the inhabitants of the riverside villages for whom the river was the principal source of water. This is the first study of cancer morbidity in the extended Techa River cohort (ETRC). It is a companion study to Project 1.1, Techa River Population Dosimetry, and to Techa River Population Cancer Mortality, formerly sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and now sponsored by DOE. The aim of Phase III is to extend the follow-up of cancer incidence among the members of the ETRC and use new epidemiological and dosimetric data from Project 1.1 to assess radiogenic cancer risk.
Results to date: Preliminary results from this study indicate an increased incidence of leukemia and stomach cancer in the exposed population.
Projected end date: September 2014.
Project 1.4: Ozersk Population Dose Reconstruction from Mayak Operations
R.F.: Yuri Mokrov, Mayak
U.S.: Lynn Anspaugh,
University of Utah
Brief Description: Phase II of this dose reconstruction project is to reconstruct time-dependent individual radiation doses to the residents of the city of Ozersk, Russia, and the surrounding area from atmospheric releases of radionuclides from nuclear weapons production activities at Mayak from 1948 to 1982. Focus will be on the emission of I-131 and dose to the thyroid glands of children. Data will support the epidemiologic study of thyroid cancer in children sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. This should help resolve the dichotomy between the studies at Hanford (no observed effect) and Chernobyl (large effect). The data also will determine whether these emissions are a confounding factor in the evaluation of radiogenic cancer risk in other groups under study, such as the Extended Techa River Cohort (Project 1.2b) and the Mayak worker cohort (Project 2.2).
Results to date: The Phase I feasibility study
was completed on March 31, 2004 and a final report was
prepared. For the first time, an estimate of the atmospheric
stack releases of I-131 was prepared by month from the
two fuel-processing plants.
Projected end date: September 2013.
Direction 2: Worker Health
Effects Research
Project 2.2: Mayak Worker
Cancer Mortality
Principal Investigators:
R.F.: Mikhail Sokolnikov, Southern Urals Biophysics
Institute
U.S.: Vacant
Brief Description: This epidemiologic study is designed to obtain quantitative estimates of carcinogenic risks from both protracted external exposure and from internal exposure to plutonium based on analyses of data from the Mayak worker cohort. The cohort consists of 26,000 workers first employed at any time between 1948 and 1982. Vital status is known through 2008. Risks of cancers of the lung, liver, and bone are being expressed as functions of doses to these organs and of potential modifying factors such as sex, time since exposure, and age at exposure. In addition, researchers will investigate whether risks of cancers of sites other than lung, liver, and bone are related to external dose and to plutonium exposure. Uncertainties in risk estimates that are developed will be quantified. In order to meet these objectives, further improvements in the data are being implemented. These include the continual updating of follow-up and the collection of further data on smoking from medical records. The results of this study are likely to enhance our understanding of protracted radiation exposure risks to humans and provide definitive data for the improvement and validation of radiation protection standards.
Results to date: This is the first study to demonstrate a statistically significant association between occupational exposure to plutonium and bone, lung, and liver cancer. These analyses were performed using the Mayak worker Doses 2005 database. Now that the Project 2.4 dosimetrists have completed the Mayak Worker Dosimetry System (MWDS) 2008, Project 2.2 researchers will analyze the data using the most recent dose estimates and compute new cancer risk estimates linked to radiation dose.
Projected end date: September 2014.
Project 2.4: Mayak Worker
Dosimetry
Principal Investigators:
R.F.: Mikhail Gorelov (External Dosimetry Team Leader),
Mayak and Alexander Efimov (Internal Dosimetry Team
Leader), Southern Urals Biophysics Institute
U.S.: Bruce Napier (External Dosimetry Team Leader),
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Alan Birchall
(Internal Dosimetry Team Leader), U.K. Health Protection Agency.
Brief Description: This dose reconstruction project is to establish a computerized database of individual internal and external radiation doses and uncertainty about those doses for each member of the 26,000 Mayak worker cohort under study in Project 2.2, Mayak Worker Cancer Mortality. The work product will be an electronic database containing updated individual dose estimates by year called Mayak Worker Dosimetry System (MWDS) 2013. As a result, improved doses for risk assessment analysis of causes of health effects from radiation exposure will be available. These data are also being used for other projects in Direction 2. This project is perhaps one of the most important of the 6 current projects within the Russian Health Studies Program. Without good dosimetry data, epidemiologists and biostatisticians will not be able to assess radiation-induced cancer risks from exposure to gamma, neutron, and alpha radiation. The Mayak worker cohort under study has the largest number of individuals and the highest chronic radiation exposures of any known population on earth. Approximately one-fourth of the exposed workers were women. Detailed health and exposure records are available at Mayak, thereby facilitating radiation health effects research.
Results to date: In addition to providing the dosimetric data for Project 2.2, Mayak Worker Cancer Mortality, this project has enhanced the understanding of plutonium metabolism in the human body and improved the biokinetic models for assessing dose from plutonium uptakes. These outcomes will be of direct benefit to DOE in improving the determination of dose to DOE workers from plutonium exposure. Improved doses have been calculated for a fraction of the group of workers. Dose calculations and uncertainty analysis of the doses continues. The Mayak worker dosimetry database "Doses 2005" was completed in 2005. MWDS 2008 was completed in September 2010. Project 2.2 researchers will analyze the data using the most recent dose estimates and are producing revised radiation cancer risk estimates.
Projected end date: September 2014.
Project
2.8: Mayak Worker Tissue Repository
Principal Investigators:
R.F.: Evgenia Kirillova, Southern Urals Biophysics
Institute
U.S.: Christopher Loffredo, Georgetown University
Brief Description: The aim of this project is to establish and maintain a state-of-the-art tissue repository designed to serve as a resource for studies of the effects of protracted internal and external radiation exposure on human health. The repository is located at the Southern Urals Biophysics Institute in Ozersk. It includes samples of archival autopsy tissues from 940 registrants, samples of surgical tissues from more than 655 individuals, and samples of blood and its components from about 4,012 Mayak workers and residents of Ozersk, supernatant and sputum cells from individuals, buccal cells from 1,500 Mayak workers, and genetic material (DNS from blood) of 138 Mayak workers' family triads. The storage conditions of the biosamples in the repository were designed to provide optimal long-term preservation of tissue samples. In conjunction with medical, occupational, and dosimetry information, data collected in the repository are used in molecular epidemiology studies. Such studies can be used to establish an association between disease and radiation exposure in individuals.
Results to date: Samples of tumor and other tissues for 155 registrants were delivered to the U.S. researchers who worked on several projects in the Russian Health Studies Program, i.e., Project 2.5, Plutonium Microdosimetry in the Lung, Project 2.6, Molecular Markers of Lung Cancer, and Project 2.7, Radiation Biomarkers. Without these samples, completion of Projects 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7 would not have been possible. Methods of transportation of tissue samples from Russia to other countries by international air mail have been tested and implemented. A website in both Russian and English describes the contents of the repository and the procedures for researcher access to the contents. Further collection and storage of tissue samples in optimal conditions and intensification of efforts to inform scientists worldwide on the established repository and its biosamples are underway.
Currently, the tissue repository database structure is being updated to facilitate the tasks of specimen bar coding, metadata development with linkage to the web site, and tissue sample inventory.
Projected end date: September 2013.
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