Prostate cancer mortality risk in relation to working underground in the Wismut cohort study of German uranium miners, 1970-2003.

Objective: A recent study and comprehensive literature review has indicated that mining could be protective against prostate cancer. This indication has been explored further here by analysing prostate cancer mortality in the German 'Wismut' uranium miner cohort, which has detailed information on the number of days worked underground.

Design: An historical cohort study of 58 987 male mine workers with retrospective follow-up before 1999 and prospective follow-up since 1999.