Authored By:
Danielle Vienneau, Kees de Hoogh, Dimitri Hauri, Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera, Christian Schindler, Anke Huss, and Martin RöösliThis is a retrospective cohort study which investigated the association between radon and UV exposure and skin cancer. A total of 5.2 million people were included in the study, which contained a total of 2,989 skin cancer deaths primarily due to malignant melanoma. The individuals’ residential exposures to radon and UV were assessed using exposure prediction models which were based on environmental data. The study found that residential radon exposure increased the risk of skin cancer, when combined with UV or independently. The authors found that both radon and UV exposure are relevant risk factors for skin cancer.
Published In:
Environ Health Perspect. 2017 Jun;125(6)The strength of this study was its sample size – it used the famous Swiss National Cohort which consists of more than 5 million people and has been used for numerous studies.
The study assessed individual exposures to radon and UV based on modelled exposures at the place of residence of the subjects The study contained inherent disadvantages of this type of study design i.e. great potential for exposure misclassification as there are many behavioural factors that affect personal exposure to radon and UV compared to residential exposure. Nevertheless the exposure assessment was more convincing for radon compared to UV.
In conclusion, the methods employed were good for this type of study and were a better predictor of the radon skin cancer relationship compared to the UV skin cancer comparison.
