By Christopher Busby
Abstract
The USA Defence Threat Reduction Agency provided data in 2014 on the health status, including cancer, of the 4,843 sailors on the nuclear-powered United States Ship (USS) Ronald Reagan over the 2.55-year period from May 12th 2011 to Dec 31st 2013. Also provided were data on a matched control group of 65,269 US Navy personnel. Examination of the control population relative to the US national data gives a Relative Risk for all malignancies of RR =9.2 (95% CI 8.48 < 9.2 < 9.96). The result suggests a significant cancer risk associated with serving on a nuclear-powered ship, one which is not predicted by the science underlying current radiation protection legislation.Keywords: environmental epidemiology, radiation, nuclear workers, cancer, Radiation risk
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