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Suicide and other causes of death among Chernobyl cleanup workers from Estonia, 1986-2020: an update

dc.contributor.authorRahu, Kaja
dc.contributor.authorRahu, Mati
dc.contributor.authorZeeb, Hajo
dc.contributor.authorAuvinen, Anssi
dc.contributor.authorBromet, Evelyn
dc.contributor.authorBoice Jr, John D. D.
dc.date.accessioned2023-02-13T20:37:13Z
dc.date.available2023-02-13T20:37:13Z
dc.date.issued2023-01-07
dc.identifier.citationRahu, K., Rahu, M., Zeeb, H. et al. Suicide and other causes of death among Chernobyl cleanup workers from Estonia, 1986 − 2020: an update. Eur J Epidemiol 38, 225–232 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-022-00957-3en_US
dc.identifier.issn0393-2990
dc.identifier.othereISSN 1573-7284
dc.identifier.otherPubMed ID36609895
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1803/17997
dc.description.abstractMortality was studied in a cohort of 4831 men from Estonia who participated in the environmental cleanup of the radioac-tively contaminated areas around Chernobyl in 1986-1991. Their mortality in 1986-2020 was compared with the mortality in the Estonian male population. A total of 1503 deaths were registered among the 4812 traced men. The all-cause standard-ized mortality ratio (SMR) was 1.04 (95% CI 0.99-1.09). All-cancer mortality was elevated (SMR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03-1.28). Radiation-related cancers were in excess (SMR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03-1.36); however, the excesses could be attributed to tobacco and alcohol consumption. For smoking-related cancers, the SMR was 1.20 (95% CI 1.06-1.35) and for alcohol-related cancers the SMR was 1.56 (95% CI 1.26-1.86). Adjusted relative risks (ARR) of all-cause mortality were increased among workers who stayed in the Chernobyl area >= 92 days (ARR 1.20, 95% CI 1.08-1.34), were of non-Estonian ethnicity (ARR 1.33, 95% CI 1.19-1.47) or had lower (basic or less) education (ARR 1.63, 95% CI 1.45-1.83). Suicide mortality was increased (SMR 1.31, 95% CI 1.05-1.56), most notably among men with lower education (ARR 2.24, 95% CI 1.42-3.53). Our find-ings provide additional evidence that unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and smoking play an important role in shaping cancer mortality patterns among Estonian Chernobyl cleanup workers. The excess number of suicides suggests long-term psychiatric and substance use problems tied to Chernobyl-related stressors, i.e., the psychosocial impact was greater than any direct carcinogenic effect of low-dose radiation.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThe authors declare that no funds, grants or other financial support were received for conducting the current stage of study or for the preparation of this manuscript. However, previous support for the study was provided by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science (target funding SF 0940026s07), and the US National Cancer Institute (Contract N01-CP-85638-03).en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherEuropean Journal Of Epidemiologyen_US
dc.rightsThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article. To request permission for a type of use not listed, please contact Springer Nature
dc.source.urihttps://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-022-00957-3.pdf
dc.subjectChernobylen_US
dc.subjectCleanup workersen_US
dc.subjectCohorten_US
dc.subjectEstoniaen_US
dc.subjectMortalityen_US
dc.subjectSuicideen_US
dc.titleSuicide and other causes of death among Chernobyl cleanup workers from Estonia, 1986-2020: an updateen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10654-022-00957-3


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