Posted on 08/20/2012 3:47:12 PM PDT by moonshot925
Aug 20 (Reuters) - People who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as children continue to have a higher-than-normal risk of thyroid cancer more than 50 years after radiation exposure, according to a U.S. study.
Thyroid cells are particularly vulnerable to ionizing radiation, the kind produced by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown or the atomic bombings in Japan.
The study published in the International Journal of Cancer tracked new cancer diagnoses in people who were in Japan during the bombings in 1945 and those who were not.
In total, there were 371 thyroid cancers diagnosed between 1958 and 2005 in about 105,000 atomic bomb survivors.
The study found little evidence that adults exposed to the radiation were more likely to develop thyroid cancer later on.
However, for children exposed to the radiation, the result was different. The study found 36 percent of 191 thyroid cancers in people who were children or teens at the time was likely due to radiation exposure.
"Thyroid cancer is one of the most radio sensitive cancers," said Kiyohiko Mabuchi at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who worked on the study.
"Younger (thyroid) tissue may be more sensitive to radiation - that's one of the hypotheses."
The thyroid releases hormones that help regulate the body's metabolism. The gland works especially hard during times of fast growth and development in children and teens.
The researchers said it was not clear whether the findings have implications for Japanese children who were living near the Fukushima nuclear plant, which suffered a meltdown last March following an earthquake and tsunami.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Headline should have been: “Bombing Pearl Harbor Still A Huge Frickin’ Mistake”
notice how they say a higher threat but no increased incidence....that’s because the Japanese consume very high quantities of iodine which PROTECTS the thyroid from cancer, and every other cell from cancer as well.
We all need high doses of iodine.
Article is totally devoid of any accurate science. Thyroid cells are no more severely effected by ionizing radiation than any other body cells. The THYROID GLAND is particularly vulnerable because the fission blast process produces a large amount of radioactive IODINE, which is selectively picked up by the body and concentrated in the thyroid. And that is why there are available POTASSIUM IODIDE tablets, which load up the body with NONRADIOACTIVE iodine, and either prevent the uptake of the radioactive material, or help flush it out by increasing the natural turnover rate of iodine.
“The researchers said it was not clear whether the findings have implications for Japanese children who were living near the Fukushima nuclear plant, which suffered a meltdown last March following an earthquake and tsunami.”
It’s not, or at least not greatly. The exposure for people living near the Fukishima plant was about .1 rem; the exposure from natural sources from just living in the Denver area is about .3 rem. A rem is the standard unit of measurment of radiation exposure to humans.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772404577589270444059332.html
PEARL HARBOR STILL SAFE FROM JAPS.
And yet millions live in the rebuilt shining metropolises.
“People who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as children continue to have a higher-than-normal risk of thyroid cancer more than 50 years after radiation exposure...”
Uh, make that 70 years ago and all bets are off on what causes what at this point—they made it this long.
Yeah, well, too damn bad they didn't think of that before they bombed Pearl Harbor.
There's NO WAY any American should feel guilt over that. Nor should any Japanese who wasn't there. It's over and done with. Stop bellyaching about it, enemedia.
Sounds like academic pukes looking for grants and media pukes desperate for a story...
I’ll fool them, lost my thyroid to cancer many years ago.
How removed?? One of the TREATMENTS for thyroid cancer is to deliberately administer a high dose of radioactive iodine, which is selectively taken up by the T gland.....killing it AND the cancer.
What do you do for replacement hormone.....T4 only, or mixed T4 and T3 (or someting else??).
Mine was papilary cancer, had a lump come up on the left side so they took that side out about a week later the lab results came back positive and a weel alater I had the other side removed. They kept waiting for my thyroid levels to drop but they wouldn’t so they hit me with a large dose of RI to kill the remaing. I now take 150 Mcg Levothyroxine daily. Other than having to have two surgeries on the same spot in two weeks it was piece of cake and have had no problems since.
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