National Registry for Radiation Workers (NRRW)
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
368847
Contact name
Richard Haylock
Contact email
Research summary
National Registry for Radiation Workers
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/SC/0129
Date of REC Opinion
6 May 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
The database holds information about UK radiation workers. The data is collated from existing employer-held records and from national registries for the follow-up data.
Not all the following data items are stored for all participants.
Personal identifying information; name, date of birth, gender, NHS or CHI and National Insurance number. Employment information: employer, start and end of employment periods as a radiation worker, job title or grade, and location.
Radiation dose data; annual (or more frequent) external whole body and bioassay data (measurements of excreted radioactive substances in urine) from which annual and lifetime whole body and organ specific dose measurements can be calculated.
Follow-up data comprising cancer incidence data (date of cancer registration, ICD code, and morphology code if available) and mortality data (date of death, ICD code and morphology code).A pilot study to assess the benefit to the study to collect data from annual occupational health reviews of workers such as smoking, alcohol consumption, BMI and diabetes is being examined to enable the better estimation of baseline rates of common diseases.
A pilot study examining the value of using Hospital Episode statistics data as surrogate incidence data for circulatory diseases is proposed.
Research programme
The database provides high quality direct evidence about the effects of long-term occupational exposure to ionising radiation to reassure to past and current radiation workers about the impact of their occupational radiation exposure on their long-term health. It supports the UK Health Security Agency, in its remit to the Department for Health to provide high quality evidence, support and advice about the protection of workers and the public from exposure to ionising radiation. The database also provides evidence, via academic papers in the peer reviewed scientific press, which supports international evidenced-based assessment of radiation risks which ultimately feed into the setting of ionising radiation protection regulations in the UK.
Research database title
National Registry for Radiation Workers
Establishment organisation
UK Health Security Agency
Establishment organisation address
UKHSA Centre for Radiation, Chemical, Climate and Environmental Hazards Division (RCCE)
Chilton, Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0RQ