Answer to Question #4479 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Q

When I was in the Navy as a nuclear propulsion plant operator, I vaguely remember being told that the federal government tracks the health of current and former Navy nukes in an effort to discern whether or not there are any long-term effects on the health of radiation workers due to their exposure to ionizing radiation. Is it true that such tracking is taking place/has taken place, and, if true, where might I read about it?

A

I have spoken with persons in the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and the short answer to your question is that the Navy has not done any health studies on nuclear propulsion plant operators to specifically study long-term effects due to radiation exposure from operating the plants.

There was a study completed in 1987 that was sponsored by the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and done by researchers from Yale University to study whether the enclosed environment of nuclear submarines has had any impact on the health of officers and enlisted personnel serving on submarines. Although not designed as a cancer study of a radiation-exposed group, the study did examine cancer as a function of radiation exposure. The study found there was no correlation between cancer and radiation exposure. For example, among the approximately 73,000 enlisted submariners in the study, it was expected that 127 would have died from cancer, based on national rates, but only 84 cancer deaths were observed.

I have been told this study is currently being updated by researchers from another university but it is not completed at this time. However, the preliminary results continue to show no correlation between submarine service and any cause of death like cancer.

For information on health effects from low-dose radiation, such as you received as a nuclear propulsion plant operator in the Navy, you can visit our Ask The Expert answers under "Radiation Effects."

I hope this answers your question and is helpful.

Keith H. Dinger, CHP