What Does the Nuclear Shipyard Worker Study Tell Us?
“The Nuclear Shipyard Workers Study1 (NSWS) was designed to determine whether there was an excess risk of leukemia or other cancers associated with exposure to low levels of gamma radiation. The study was conducted at a cost of more than $10 million through a contract from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to Matanoski at Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health. The study was initiated in 1978. The study was completed in 1987. The results have never been published in the scientific literature. In 1991 the DOE made the 437-page study available to the public with a 2-page press release. In the debate on the health effects of low-level radiation, this study, which is perhaps the largest and best of its kind, with better dosimetry than most studies of large exposed populations, is largely ignored. It is fair to assume that if the result of this study had indicated a statistically significant 24% INCREASE in cancer mortality among the radiation-exposed shipyard worke
