Re: A dose of reality, continued

[PAMS718@aol.com]

I have been out of touch (away on vacation) and only recently caught up on this thread... I would like to add two or three cents worth of thoughts on this issue...

1. I think that we all agree that cancer, any cancer, is scary, and serious. I don't think that anyone who has written to Radsafe on this issue would take exception to that statement.  We are compassionate and caring human beings.  But the fatality rates  do vary depending on the type of cancer, and it is a fact that thyroid cancer has a low fatality, high cure success rate.  If fate had determined that I would get cancer, (and it did)  then I would choose thyroid cancer as an adult, rather than the reproductive cancer I had as a young woman. I think that is the point that some contributors have tried to make..that in this case, perhaps, it is not an "ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure", but rather, due to the low mortality rates implementing such a KI policy may be "a pound of prevention vs an ounce of cure".  (and I understand to the affected person, it doesn't feel like an ounce of cure..)

2. We know that children are highly dependent upon their thyroids for normal  growth and development.  we know that impacting the function of a child's thyroid gland can have profound effects on the child's development (mental and physical), hence a disease such as childhood thyroid cancer is  serious. 

3. we do not know  the real rate of thyroid cancer in children, pre-Chernobyl.   As such, the  rate of increase in thyroid cancers due to Chernobyl in uncertain.  How much has the rate increased?  we really don't know  and  we are speculating using expected values based on  U.S. and  western European populations.  we also know that certain ethnic groups have higher rates of certain types of cancers due to genetic factors...and thryoid cancer is one of those cancers linked to genetic factors within these ethnic groups.
So we must tread carefully as we look at these statistics.

4. we know that iodine deficient diets will lead to greater iodine uptakes by the thyroid gland.  we know that in America, we consume a tremendous amount of iodized salt in our diets and as such we, in America, do not live with iodine deficient diets. In the U.S., most thyroids are about 40% blocked due to our love of  (iodized) salt.   

5.It appears, based on sampling of biota,air,food, water, etc, that the primary exposure pathway to the children of Belarus was via ingestion. we know that food, water and milk supplies were not interdicted in the areas surrounding the Chernobyl accident until well after the accident. How useful is a single dose of KI without concommitant interdiction of food, milk, water supplies?  What are the effects from long term, multiple doses of KI in children?  We do know that neonates are susceptible not only to the effects of radioactive iodines, but also sensitive to functional thyroid  blocking caused by an overload of stable idodine.   

9. In the US, an infrastructure exists to:  1)evacuate  and 2) interdict food supplies where necessary (interdiction of food occurs almost routinely within the US... think E.coli, salmonella, etc) 

10.  While we can certainly learn from the experiences of the Chernobyl accident, does it make  sense to base public policy for the United States on events that happen in other countries that are so vastly different than our own?  Are there other instances where we (the US) make sweeping policy decisions for large numbers of the population based on events that occur in countries that are so different than our own?  I don't know the answer to that question.. and would certainly appreciate input from others on that query.

These are just my thoughts...

    Patricia M. Sullivan
    pams718@aol.com
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