High rates of systemic lupus erythematosus in uranium processing area
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center sought to explain an excessive number of lupus cases reported in a community five miles from a former uranium plant in Fernald, Ohio
“What prompted us was the knowledge that lupus patients may be sensitive to sunlight and irradiation, in addition to literature hinting that miners may be at increased risk for developing lupus,”
HIGH LUPUS RATES NEAR FORMER URANIUM ORE PLANT, OmGlobe.com, 11/10/2012 – High rates of systemic lupus erythematosus have been linked to living in proximity to a former uranium ore processing facility in Ohio, according to new research findings presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Systemic lupus erythematosus, also called SLE or lupus, is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, lungs, nervous system, and/or other organs of the body. The most common symptoms include skin rashes and arthritis, often accompanied by fatigue and fever. Lupus occurs mostly in women, typically developing in individuals in their twenties and thirties – prime child-bearing age.
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center sought to explain an excessive number of lupus cases reported in a community five miles from a former uranium plant in Fernald, Ohio, from 1990 to 2008.
They used available medical data from the Fernald Community Cohort, an 18-year study of 8,788 adult
volunteers living near the plant, not including any plant workers.
“What prompted us was the knowledge that lupus patients may be sensitive to sunlight and irradiation, in addition to literature hinting that miners may be at increased risk for developing lupus,”
says Pai-Yue Lu, MD, a pediatric rheumatology fellow at Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the lead researcher in the
study. “When we learned of the Fernald cohort, how carefully the
community had been followed, and the uranium exposure data collected,
we were curious whether the frequency of lupus in those exposed was
increased over those who had not been exposed. The availability of
this cohort and carefully collected data provided a great setting to
ask this question.”…….
http://www.omglobe.com/2012/11/10/high-lupus-rates-near-former-uranium-ore-plant/
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