Risk of stillbirths and paternal occupational exposure to ionizing radiation

In order to study the effects on the progeny of the pre conceptional father irradiation, Louise Parker and her team have begun a large cohort study turning on the whole of children born in the Cumbria area where is situated the Sellafield facility. The article published in the lancet, studies the risk of a stillbirth in function of paternal occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. For the cohort study, the crude and adjusted analysis show a statistically significant association between the risk of stillbirth and the ASD total (Annual Summary Dose, ASD, ASD total is ASD cumulated on the entire life, and ASD 90 is external radiation dose received during the 90 days preceding the conception) and between the risk of stillbirth and ASD 90. The analysis of witness-cases study confirms the existence of an association between the cumulative pre conceptional dose (FB total, FB acronym for film badge) and the risk of a stillbirth. On the other hand, the risk of stillbirth is not clearly associated to an increasing of the FB 90 (that is the external radiation dose received during the 90 days preceding the conception. The differences between the two studies about the effect of irradiation in the 90 days preceding the conception could be explained by the estimation of the measure of ASD 90 proportionately to the annual cumulative dose. It could be the case, if during one year, the workers are irregularly exposed to ionizing radiation. If it is untimely to interpret the relationship observed between the paternal occupational irradiation and the risk of stillbirth in term of causality, the study of Parker and coll. incite to the development of complementary researches on the trans-generational effects of a pre conceptional exposure to ionizing radiations. (N.C.)