Radon and COPD mortality in the American Cancer Society Cohort

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Abstract
Although radon gas is a known cause of lung cancer, the association between residential radon and mortality from non-malignant respiratory disease has not been well characterised.The Cancer Prevention Study-II is a large prospective cohort study of nearly 1.2 million Americans recruited in 1982. Mean county-level residential radon concentrations were linked to study participants' residential address based on their ZIP code at enrolment (mean±sd53.5±38.0 Bq·m−3). Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for non-malignant respiratory disease mortality associated with radon concentrations. After necessary exclusions, a total of 811,961 participants in 2,754 counties were included in the analysis.Throughout 2006, there were a total of 28,300 non-malignant respiratory disease deaths. Radon was significantly associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality (HR per 100 Bq·m−31.13, 95% CI 1.05–1.21). There was a significant positive linear trend in COPD mortality with increasing categories of radon concentrations (p<0.05).Findings suggest residential radon may increase COPD mortality. Further research is needed to confirm this finding and to better understand possible complex inter-relationships between radon, COPD and lung cancer.

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