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Prolonged job-related radiation exposure increases hypertension odds
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Prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation from working in a nuclear facility led to elevated risk for hypertension incidence, even compared with Japanese atomic bomb survivors, according to findings published in Hypertension.
Tamara Azizova, MD, PhD, and colleagues assessed hypertension incidence risk in a cohort of workers exposed to ionizing radiation.
“We believe that an estimate of the detrimental health consequences of radiation exposure should also include noncancer health outcomes,” Azizova, the head of the clinical department at the Southern Urals Biophysics Institute in Chelyabinsk, Russia, said in a press release. “We now have evidence suggesting that radiation exposure may also lead to increased risks of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease, as well.”
The researchers examined data from a cohort including 22,377 workers from a Russian nuclear facility employed between 1948 and 1982, with 429,707 person-years of follow-up. All workers were exposed to external gamma rays, with 76% of workers exposed to alpha particles from internally deposited plutonium.
Mean cumulative absorbed liver doses from external gamma rays were 0.45 Gy in men and 0.37 Gy in women, Azizova and colleagues wrote. Mean cumulative absorbed liver doses from alpha particles were 0.23 Gy for men and 0.44 Gy for women.
At the end of the follow-up period, hypertension cases were verified in 38% of workers (men, 36%; women, 49%), the researchers wrote.
Hypertension incidence was significantly linearly associated with cumulative liver absorbed dose from external gamma rays (excess relative risk/Gy = 0.14; 95% CI, 0.09-0.2).
No significant association of hypertension incidence with cumulative liver absorbed dose from internal alpha particles were found (excessive relative risk/Gy = –0.01), Azizova and colleagues wrote.
The hypertension risk estimate in the cohort was higher than for Japanese atomic bomb survivors but lower than for cleanup workers from the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the researchers wrote.
“So far, the mechanisms remain unclear, not only for certain cohorts but also for the general population,” Azizova said in the release. “One of the main tasks for the coming decade is to study the mechanisms of hypertension and heart and brain atherosclerosis occurring in people who are — and who were exposed — to radiation.”
In a related editorial, Richard Wakeford, PhD, BSc, a professor of epidemiology at the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Manchester, U.K., wrote: “At present, there is indicative evidence of a link, but overall, the findings are not yet persuasive, in particular because of the uncertain influence of major nonradiation risk factors on the reported associations. As ever, observational epidemiology has great difficulties in getting a firm grip on underlying relationships in the presence of material variations in background risk factors. Until meaningful inroads can be made into dealing with this problem, reliable interpretation will remain elusive.” – by Earl Holland Jr.
Disclosures: The authors and Wakeford report no relevant financial disclosures.
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