Wang Shiow-Ing, Yaung Chih-Liang, Lee Long-Teng, Chiou Shang-Jyh
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2016 Jan;23(1):571-80. doi: 10.1007/s11356-015-5289-6. Epub 2015 Sep 2.
Numerous antinuclear demonstrations reveal that the public is anxious about the potential health effects caused by nuclear power plants. The purpose of this study is to address the question "Is there a higher cancer incidence rate in the vicinity of nuclear power plants in Taiwan?" The Taiwan Cancer Registry database from 1979 to 2003 was used to compare the standardized incidence rate of the top four cancers with strong evidence for radiation risks between the "plant-vicinity" with those "non-plant-vicinity" groups. All cancer sites, five-leading cancers in Taiwan, and gender-specific cancers were also studied. We also adopted different observation time to compare the incidence rate of cancers between two groups to explore the impact of the observation period. The incidences of leukemia, thyroid, lung, and breast cancer were not significantly different between two groups, but cervix uteri cancer showed higher incidence rates in the plant-vicinity group. The incidence of cervical cancer was not consistently associated with the duration of plant operation, according to a multiyear period comparison. Although there was higher incidence in cervix cancer in the plant-vicinity group, our findings did not provide the crucial evidence that nuclear power plants were the causal factor for some cancers with strong evidence for radiation risks.
众多反核示威表明公众对核电站可能造成的健康影响感到担忧。本研究的目的是解决“台湾核电站附近地区的癌症发病率是否更高？”这一问题。利用1979年至2003年台湾癌症登记数据库，比较“核电站附近”组和“非核电站附近”组中四种有充分辐射风险证据的主要癌症的标准化发病率。还研究了所有癌症部位、台湾的五种主要癌症以及特定性别的癌症。我们还采用不同的观察时间来比较两组之间的癌症发病率，以探讨观察期的影响。两组之间白血病、甲状腺癌、肺癌和乳腺癌的发病率没有显著差异，但子宫颈癌在核电站附近组的发病率较高。根据多年期比较，子宫颈癌的发病率与核电站运行时间并不始终相关。尽管核电站附近组的子宫颈癌发病率较高，但我们的研究结果并未提供关键证据证明核电站是某些有充分辐射风险证据的癌症的致病因素。
