Evaluation of ionizing radiation as a risk factor for the incidence of breast cancer: long-term analysis after the cesium-137 accident in Goiânia, Brazil. An ecological study

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The largest radiological accident to occur in any urban area happened in Goiânia, Brazil, in 1987. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between breast cancer incidence and ionizing radiation levels. DESIGN AND SETTING: Ecological study among residents of the city of Goiânia, Brazil. METHODS: The central region of Goiânia, with seven major sources of contamination from cesium-137, was defined as the study area. The addresses of women diagnosed with breast cancer were identified between 2001 and 2010. The data were geographically referenced and, using census data, the annual averages of crude incidence rates were estimated. The existence of clusters of new cases was ascertained by means of the Moran index. Correlations of radiometric measurements with the incidence were assessed using unconditional linear regression. RESULTS: A total of 4,105 new cases were identified, of which 2,233 were in the study area, and of these, 1,286 (57.59%) were georeferenced. The gross rates of total and referenced cases were 102.91 and 71.86/100,000 women, respectively. These were close to the average for Brazilian state capitals, which is 79.37/100,000 women. The cluster analysis showed slight correlations in three small sets of census tracts, but these were far from the sources of contamination. The scatter plot of points and the R2 value close to zero indicated that there was no association between the variables. CONCLUSION: This study reinforces the hypothesis that the ionizing radiation levels to which women living in Goiânia are now exposed to are not associated with the onset of new cases of breast cancer.

Investigation on Dose Levels of Medical Exposure From X-Ray Diagnostic Procedures in Qinghai Province / 环境与健康杂志

Objective To investigate the exposure dose levels of patient body surface and main sensitive organs from routine medical X-ray diagnosis so as to offer a basic data of guidance levels in radiological diagnosis practice. Methods To measure the skin surface exposure doses of the irradiation field and the main sensitive organs of patients by thermoluminescent dosimeter moreover to estimate the main sensitive organs exposure doses using tissue percentage depths formula. Results The exposure dose of chest fluoroscopy was 30 times that of fluorography. The exposure dose(12.41 mGy/time) of barium meal examination in alimentary canal was the highest in all examination. The dose of thyroid(0.210 mGy/time) was the highest when getting the chest fluoroscopy the dose of ovary was the highest when getting barium meal(0.390 mGy/time) and lumbar fluoroscopy(0.168 mGy/time) in all of sensitive organs dose. Conclusion Chest fluorography will give the patients a lower dose exposure of X-ray compared with fluoroscopy.