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Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation

BACKGROUND: Probability of causation (PC) is a reasonable way to estimate causal relationships in radiation-related cancer. This study reviewed the international trend, usage, and critiques of the PC method. Because it has been used in Korea, it is important to check the present status and estimatio...

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Autores principales: Kim, Eun-A, Lee, Eujin, Kang, Seong-Kyu, Jeong, Meeseon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791729/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29435338
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40557-018-0220-5
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author Kim, Eun-A
Lee, Eujin
Kang, Seong-Kyu
Jeong, Meeseon
author_facet Kim, Eun-A
Lee, Eujin
Kang, Seong-Kyu
Jeong, Meeseon
author_sort Kim, Eun-A
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Probability of causation (PC) is a reasonable way to estimate causal relationships in radiation-related cancer. This study reviewed the international trend, usage, and critiques of the PC method. Because it has been used in Korea, it is important to check the present status and estimation of PC in radiation-related cancers in Korea. METHODS: Research articles and official reports regarding PC of radiation-related cancer and published from the 1980s onwards were reviewed, including studies used for the revision of the Korean PC program. PC has been calculated for compensation-related cases in Korea since 2005. RESULTS: The United States National Institutes of Health first estimated the PC in 1985. Among the 106 occupational diseases listed in the International Labor Organization Recommendation 194 (International Labor Office (ILO), ILO List of Occupational Diseases, 2010), PC is available only for occupational cancer after ionizing radiation exposure. The United States and United Kingdom use PC as specific criteria for decisions on the compensability of workers’ radiation-related health effects. In Korea, PC was developed firstly as Korean Radiation Risk and Assigned Share (KORRAS) in 1999. In 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute and Radiation Health Research Institute jointly developed a more revised PC program, Occupational Safety and Health-PC (OSH-PC). Between 2005 and 2015, PC was applied in 16 claims of workers’ compensation for radiation-related cancers. In most of the cases, compensation was given when the PC was more than 50%. However, in one case, lower than 50% PC was accepted considering the possibility of underestimation of the cumulative exposure dose. CONCLUSIONS: PC is one of the most advanced tools for estimating the causation of occupational cancer. PC has been adjusted for baseline cancer incidence in Korean workers, and for uncertainties using a statistical method. Because the fundamental reason for under- or over-estimation is probably inaccurate dose reconstruction, a proper guideline is necessary.
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spelling pubmed-57917292018-02-12 Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation Kim, Eun-A Lee, Eujin Kang, Seong-Kyu Jeong, Meeseon Ann Occup Environ Med Research Article BACKGROUND: Probability of causation (PC) is a reasonable way to estimate causal relationships in radiation-related cancer. This study reviewed the international trend, usage, and critiques of the PC method. Because it has been used in Korea, it is important to check the present status and estimation of PC in radiation-related cancers in Korea. METHODS: Research articles and official reports regarding PC of radiation-related cancer and published from the 1980s onwards were reviewed, including studies used for the revision of the Korean PC program. PC has been calculated for compensation-related cases in Korea since 2005. RESULTS: The United States National Institutes of Health first estimated the PC in 1985. Among the 106 occupational diseases listed in the International Labor Organization Recommendation 194 (International Labor Office (ILO), ILO List of Occupational Diseases, 2010), PC is available only for occupational cancer after ionizing radiation exposure. The United States and United Kingdom use PC as specific criteria for decisions on the compensability of workers’ radiation-related health effects. In Korea, PC was developed firstly as Korean Radiation Risk and Assigned Share (KORRAS) in 1999. In 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute and Radiation Health Research Institute jointly developed a more revised PC program, Occupational Safety and Health-PC (OSH-PC). Between 2005 and 2015, PC was applied in 16 claims of workers’ compensation for radiation-related cancers. In most of the cases, compensation was given when the PC was more than 50%. However, in one case, lower than 50% PC was accepted considering the possibility of underestimation of the cumulative exposure dose. CONCLUSIONS: PC is one of the most advanced tools for estimating the causation of occupational cancer. PC has been adjusted for baseline cancer incidence in Korean workers, and for uncertainties using a statistical method. Because the fundamental reason for under- or over-estimation is probably inaccurate dose reconstruction, a proper guideline is necessary. BioMed Central 2018-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5791729/ /pubmed/29435338 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40557-018-0220-5 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kim, Eun-A
Lee, Eujin
Kang, Seong-Kyu
Jeong, Meeseon
Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
title Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
title_full Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
title_fullStr Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
title_full_unstemmed Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
title_short Probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
title_sort probability of causation for occupational cancer after exposure to ionizing radiation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791729/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29435338
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40557-018-0220-5
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