Duggan M J, Soilleux P J, Strong J C, Howell D M
Br J Ind Med. 1970 Apr;27(2):106-9. doi: 10.1136/oem.27.2.106.
106-109. Airborne radon has been recognized as a probable cause of lung cancer since the epidemiological studies made in the mining communities of Schneeberg and Jachymov during the 1920s and 1930s. Uranium miners are generally exposed to high concentrations of radon, and the growth of the uranium mining industry in the past 20 years has therefore stimulated a great amount of work on the risk from inhalation of radon and its daughters. However, there is still no general agreement on either the physical measurements in which the maximum permissible concentration in air should be expressed or the numerical value of this concentration. There are no uranium mines being worked in the United Kingdom but there are considerable numbers of coal and other mines. It was therefore decided to make some radon measurements in a selection of mines in the UK to see if there was any prospect of obtaining useful dose-risk data. Measurements were made in 22 mines in all - 12 coal mines and 10 other mines - and the highest concentrations were found in three haematite mines in West Cumberland and in the two tin mines which were visited. The concentrations in these five mines were, in general, greater than 0·3 of a working level (WL) and in many locations were greater than 1 WL. Because of these findings and also because an excess incidence of lung cancer among West Cumberland haematite miners has been previously reported, a further study of the mortality experience of West Cumberland miners has been carried out by Boyd, Doll, Faulds, and Leiper (1970). Their findings are reported in this Journal (p. 97).
106 - 109. 自20世纪20年代和30年代在施内贝格和亚希莫夫的采矿社区进行流行病学研究以来，空气中的氡已被确认为肺癌的一个可能病因。铀矿工人一般会接触到高浓度的氡，因此，过去20年铀矿业的发展激发了大量关于吸入氡及其子体风险的研究工作。然而，对于应以何种物理测量方式来表示空气中的最大允许浓度，以及该浓度的数值，目前仍未达成普遍共识。英国没有正在开采的铀矿，但有相当数量的煤矿和其他矿山。因此，决定在英国的一些矿山进行一些氡测量，以查看是否有获得有用的剂量 - 风险数据的可能性。总共在22个矿山进行了测量——12个煤矿和10个其他矿山——在西坎伯兰的三个赤铁矿矿山和所走访的两个锡矿中发现了最高浓度。这五个矿山中的浓度一般大于0.3工作水平（WL），在许多地方大于1 WL。由于这些发现，也因为此前曾报告西坎伯兰赤铁矿矿工中肺癌发病率过高，博伊德、多尔、福尔兹和利珀（1970年）对西坎伯兰矿工的死亡情况进行了进一步研究。他们的研究结果发表在本杂志（第97页）。
