Radiation is a workplace hazard, and there are two types of radiation that are of concern to industrial hygienists. Ionizing radiation is radiation that will ionize an atom, so for example x-rays or gamma rays. Non-ionizing radiation is a different category and includes ultraviolet radiation, infrared, static fields, radio frequencies and extremely low frequency fields (AIHA, 2014). Karipidis et al. (2007) discuss the relationship between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation and glioma, which is a malignant cancer of the glial tissue in the nervous system. Gliomas represent 80% of malignant brain tumors, and the exact cause of gliomas is not known. There are suspicions among researchers, however, that radiation is a key causal factor, and that has implications for occupational health. The article in question was published in the journal Occupational Medicine, which is one of the journals that publishes articles pertaining to industrial hygiene. This is a valuable area of study because at some point, findings in the field will be sufficiently conclusive for OSHA to set out guidelines. Further, even in the absence of OSHA guidelines, employers may wish to minimize their liability and risk related to creating exposure for their employees.

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There was also a control group for the study. The authors did not find evidence of a link between occupational exposure to radiation and glioma, except in the case of UV radiation risk. Even this was inconclusive, and the authors ultimately determined that more study was required on this issue. If there is a link, this study did not show it.
One of the reasons for the study was that the authors noted that males were more likely to have glioma, and it was felt that there were occupational explanations for that. There are also several studies that show increased exposure to radiation is a causal factor for brain tumor but that the data was not specific to glioma and not specific to occupational causes. This particular study aimed to increase the sample size, focus on one particularly bad tumor and focus on different types of occupational radiation exposure.

There are a number of devices available to measure radiation exposure of different types. The study in question used the Finnish Job Exposure Matrix to determine the occupational radiation exposure for the…