NCI - Thyroid Cancer Rate From Chernobyl Nearly 4X Normal - Reuters

[hatrack]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study confirms a substantially increased risk of thyroid cancer among people exposed to radiation during childhood and adolescence after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.


A total of 13,127 of the 32,385 individuals living in the most contaminated area of the Ukraine during the nuclear plant meltdown and who were under 18 at the time were screened between 1998 and 2000, Dr. Geoffrey R. Howe of Columbia University in New York and colleagues report. They found that 45 cases of thyroid cancer occurred compared with 11.2 cases that would have been expected in the absence of radiation exposure. Plus, the higher the dosage of radioactive iodine, the greater the thyroid cancer risk.
The study is the first to measure the risk of thyroid cancer associated with specific radiation dosage, Howe and his team note in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Radioactive iodine and cesium were the main components of the Chernobyl fallout. Because radioactive iodine is used frequently in medicine -- and is also likely to be a chief contaminant released in any future nuclear emergency -- understanding the risk associated with exposure is a public health concern, as well as of scientific interest, the researchers point out.

A spike in thyroid cancer cases had already been observed among Ukraine residents who were children and adolescents when the Chernobyl accident occurred. However, the researchers note, increased rates of screening for thyroid cancer and a low dietary iodine intake, which increases the uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, "almost certainly" were factors in this increase.


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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/37149/story.htm

[TheWraith]

1. Hardly surprising. The good news is that it's easy to treat.

This particular kind of thyroid cancer, while agressive, is relatively easy to deal with given adequate treatment.

[NNadir]

2. It would be instructive to learn how many of these extra 33 people

died from their cancers.

I have understood that the thyroid cancer associated with Chernobyl is particulary agressive when compared with spontaneous thyroid cancer and that the fatality rate is somewhat higher than say, thyroid cancer, in the United States. It is well understood that people who suffer the most from this disease are those who were the youngest when exposed.

It it interesting to note that Poland acted quickly to distribute iodine just after the accident and there is some reason to suspect that this has had a measurable effect on the incidence of Chernobyl related thyroid cancer in Poland.

[TheWraith]

3. That's more of a public policy failure than medical, though.

The means exist to cure these people--if they don't get it, the politicians need the blame, not the doctors.

[amandabeech]

4. I believe that iodine pills were handed out in the most affected

downwind areas following Three Mile Island, as well.

I live not too far away, and I think that there are stores of the pills nearby just in case something might happen again. That would be a prudent policy for the areas surrounding and downwind of any nuclear facility. I wonder if it is mandated here in the U.S.

[NNadir]

5. I have a few in my home. I bought them for my kids when I was worried

about a large nuclear exchange between Pakistan and India, something that seemed possible a few years ago.

Iodine is a very volatile contaminant, and it was widely distributed in the nuclear testing era. I believe that it had pretty clear effects in the Western United States as the result of open air testing in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's.

I discussed radioiodine extensively in a series of posts here sometime ago. The first post of the series is found here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=5609&mesg_id=21180