Re: radiation is radiation? - I-131

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Good report.  See also the BEIR V statement:
http://cnts.wpi.edu/rsh/Data_Docs/1-2/3/2/123211Beir90.html

Rosalyn Yalow's '94 summary:
http://cnts.wpi.edu/rsh/Data_Docs/1-2/3/2/123212ya94.html

and Myron Pollycove's '95 summary:
http://cnts.wpi.edu/rsh/Data_Docs/1-2/3/2/123213po95.html

Regards, Jim
muckerheide@mediaone.net
========================

Richard Smart wrote:
> 
> At 21:00 10/05/2000 -0500, Ruth Weiner wrote:
> >Bob's first question raises an interesting point (especially for me since my
> >father was an early user of I-131 as a diagnostic tool).  Have there been
> >any epidemiological studies of cancer in patients in whom I-131 was used
> >diagnostically?  Similarly, have there been studies on patients who have had
> >bone scans with Tc-99?
> >
> >
> 
> Yes there have.  I refer you to the paper by Hall, Mattsson and Boice Jr,
> "Thyroid cancer after diagnostic administration of Iodine-131" Rad Res 1996
> 145:86-92
> 
> They followed 34,104 patients for up to 40 years.  The mean thyroid dose
> was estimated to be 1.1 Gy.  The Standardised Incidence Ratio was 1.35 (95%
> CI 1.05-1.71) for thyroid cancer.
> 
> The abstract states " Excess cancers were apparent only among patients
> referred because of a suspected thyroid tumour and no increased risk was
> seen among those referred for other reasons.  Further the risk was not
> related to radiation dose, time since exposure or age at exposure. The
> slight excess of thyroid cancer thus appeared to be due to the underlying
> thyroid condition and not radiation exposure.  Among those under age 20
> years when I-131 was administered, a small excess risk (3 cancers compared
> to 1.8 expected) was about 2-10 times lower than that predicted from data
> for the A-bomb survivors.  These data suggest that protraction of dose may
> result in a lower risk than an acute x-ray exposure of the same total dose."
> 
> Hope this helps the discussion
> 
> Richard Smart
> 
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
> >To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> >Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 4:38 PM
> >Subject: Re: radiation is radiation?
> >
> >
> >>>Norm is coming from a perspective that the short 1/2 life products are
> >>>the demons - especially I-131 since it insidiously hides away in the
> >>>thyroid and he has been given to believe that the thyroid is
> >>>particularly radio sensitive and that I-131 and most other short 1/2
> >>>lived isotopes are not found in nature.
> >>
> >>An interesting point that can be subjected to the same kind of sanity check
> >>as we've seen in other posts. That "deadly" I-131 secretively released from
> >>nuclear plants and causing so much harm and unhappiness is the same stuff
> >>that hospitals have been using for thyroid uptake studies on countless
> >>people for years. If it's as harmful as the anti's claim, where is the
> >>enormous outbreak of thyroid cancer it should have caused? It would most
> >>certainly be far to big to hide.
> >>
> >>Like I've said before, we keep talking about science and they keep talking
> >>about religion. The TF Project people are just as certain that every
> >>photon's a killer as those people in Salem were about those women being
> >>witches. And just like the people of Salem who kept on believing those
> >women
> >>were witches AFTER the young women who accused them recanted her testimony
> >>and admitted she made it all up, the TF Project people aren't going to let
> >>any obvious facts get in their way either. To paraphrase, "it's not about
> >>trust, it's about faith!" And those who do not believe can expect to be
> >>treated like blasphemers.
> >>============================
> >>Bob Flood
> >>Dosimetry Group Leader
> >>Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
> >>bflood@slac.stanford.edu
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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> >
> Richard Smart PhD
> Principal Physicist and Radiation Safety Officer
> Nuclear Medicine Department
> St. George Hospital
> Kogarah
> NSW, 2217, Australia
> Tel: (61 2) 9350 3129
> Fax: (61 2) 9350 3991
> email: r.smart@unsw.edu.au
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