Development and Environment, Biosciences Center, Federal University of Rio Grande Do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
Center for Exact and Earth Sciences - Department of Geology, Laboratory of Geochemistry, Federal University of Rio Grande Do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Aug;30(38):89140-89152. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-28708-1. Epub 2023 Jul 14.
The state of Rio Grande do Norte, located in the Northeast region of Brazil, has areas of granites and pegmatites with minerals that have varying concentrations of uranium. Consequently, high concentrations of radon gas, a carcinogenic substance for humans, can occur. The present study aimed to assess the occurrence of cancer and its association with exposure to sources of natural radioactivity using geological and geophysical information in the aforementioned state. The spatial dependence of pulmonary, breast, stomach, leukemia, and skin cancer cases with the location of radioisotope sources were analyzed using geoprocessing tools. The geoprocessing analysis showed a differential pattern of uranium emission throughout the state, with the highest emission from areas with pegmatites outcrops. A spatial dependency of cancer cases was shown (Moran index: 0.43; p < 0.01). Moreover, a higher rate of natural radioactivity-cancer cases was associated with the high-intensity natural radioactivity areas: odds ratio:1.21 (95% CI 1.20; 1.23), following the same pattern when separately compared the different related types of cancer. These results highlight the importance of natural radioactivity as a public health problem in the Brazilian environmental scenario, confirming the need for further studies as the first toward understanding and implementing health management strategies mitigating the exposures, especially in areas of environmental risk.
巴西东北部的北大西洋沿岸地区的罗赖马州，拥有花岗岩和伟晶岩地区，这些地区的矿物质铀含量不同。因此，可能会出现高浓度的氡气，这是一种对人类致癌的物质。本研究旨在利用上述州的地质和地球物理信息，评估癌症的发生及其与天然放射性物质来源暴露的关系。利用地理处理工具，分析了肺部、乳房、胃部、白血病和皮肤癌病例与放射性同位素源位置的空间相关性。地理处理分析显示，铀排放量在全州范围内存在差异模式，伟晶岩露头地区的排放量最高。癌症病例存在空间依赖性（莫兰指数：0.43；p<0.01）。此外，高天然放射性-癌症病例率与高强度天然放射性区域相关：比值比：1.21（95%置信区间：1.20；1.23），当单独比较不同相关类型的癌症时，也呈现出相同的模式。这些结果强调了天然放射性作为巴西环境背景下公共卫生问题的重要性，证实了需要进一步研究，以作为了解和实施减轻暴露风险的健康管理策略的第一步，特别是在环境风险地区。
