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Harriet Hardy, protégé of Alice Hamilton, spent 1948 in the Health Division of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The contemporary campaign for federal legislation to compensate nuclear workers brought to the fore living retirees in whose cases of occupational illness Hardy had a role in diagnosis or case management. A third case is documented in archival records. Methods of participatory action research were used to better document the cases and strategize in light of the evidence, thereby assisting the workers with compensation claims. Medical and neuropsychological exams of the mercury case were conducted. Hardy’s diary entries and memoirs were interpreted in light of medicolegal documentation and workers’ recollections. Through these participatory research activities, Harriet Hardy’s role and influence both inside and outside the atomic weapons complex have been elucidated. An important lesson learned is the ongoing need for a system of protective medical evaluations for nuclear workers with complex chemical exposures.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de contribuer à l’estimation des risques radio-induits aux faibles débits de dose. Ce travail s’appuie sur la cohorte des travailleurs du nucléaire CEA-AREVA NC après prolongation du suivi jusqu’en 2004. Une revue études épidémiologiques chez les travailleurs du nucléaire a été réalisée durant la première année de thèse. Une quantification de la relation dose réponse a été effectuée pour le risque de pathologies cancéreuses et non cancéreuses par différentes méthodes statistiques. Les facteurs modifiants la relation dose-réponse pour le risque de leucémie associé à la dose ont été étudiés. Combinée à d’autres cohortes de travailleurs du nucléaire, cette étude permettra de quantifier plus précisément les risques associés à de faibles doses chroniques, afin de valider les hypothèses actuelles du système de radioprotection. / The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the health effects of chronic extern allow doses of ionizing radiation. This work is based on the French cohort of CEA-AREVA NC nuclear workers. A review of epidemiological studies on nuclear workers was conducted during the first yearof the PhD thesis. The quantification of the dose-response relationship has been carried out by different statistical methods. Modifying factors of the leukaemia dose-response relationship were studied. A combined analysis including the present cohort together with other nuclear cohorts could quantify more precisely the risks associated to low doses at low dose rates, in order to validate current underlying hypotheses of the radiation protection system