Lung cancer mortality and radiation exposure among the Newfoundland miners

The mortality experience of fluorspar miners has been reviewed for the period 1933 to 1977. Underground workers exposed to radiation due to radon and radon daughter products had significantly higher mortality rates due to lung cancer and other respiratory diseases compared to unexposed surface workers. The risk of death due to lung cancer was associated with cumulative radiation exposure and increased linearly with cumulative exposure. Precise risk estimates are impossible because all but one of the lung cancer deaths which have occurred to date involved men exposed prior to 1960 when the mines were not ventilated and radiation monitoring was not conducted