The German Uranium Miners Cohort Study (Wismut cohort), 1946-2003 : Technical Report

Abstract

From 1946 – 1990, i.e. from shortly after the end of World War II and the rise of the cold war until the German reunification, there had been extensive uranium mining both in Saxony and Thuringia, which formed the southern parts of the former German Democratic Republic. Mining activities started in Saxony in the Ore Mountains (German: Erzgebirge). Mining was conducted by a Soviet, since 1954 by a Soviet- German Incorporated Company named Wismut. It is estimated that about 400,000 persons may have worked in this time period with the company, most of them underground or in uranium ore processing facilities. In the early years, exposure to radiation and dust was particularly high for underground workers. After introduction of several ventilation measures and wet drilling from 1955 onwards, the levels of exposures to the various agents steadily decreased. After German reunification, it was decided by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment to save health data that were stored in different places, but which together formed the Wismut Health Data Archives. Based on parts of the information kept in different places by different bodies, a cohort of 64,311 former Wismut employees could be established. The objective of the cohort study was to examine the long-term health effects of chronic exposure to radiation, dust and arsenic as well as their combined effects. Particular focus should be given to the outcome lung cancer, but also to extrapulmonary cancers, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This report gives a comprehensive overview on the background of the study, its objectives, material and methods employed so far for data analysis, information on how the cohort was established and which data are available, and descriptive results. All data referred to in this report are based on the cohort's second follow-up for the years 1946 – 2003.