Abstract
Epidemiological evidence of lung cancer risk from radon is based mainly on studies of miners. Two such studies among Czech uranium miners were established in 1970 and 1980. A subcohort of 5002 miners and a nested-in case–control study contribute to a joint European project. In this paper, the subcohort of miners with 495 lung cancers is described. The excess relative risk depends linearly on cumulative exposure incurred more than 5 years before. The relative effect from exposures in the distant past decreases by 62% per decade. Simultaneously, the excess relative risk is lower by 43% per decade in dependence on age at exposure. The effect of smoking, partly analysed in the study, suggests a twofold elevation in the relative risk coefficient among non-smokers, but this difference is not significant.