Re: Ship Yard Workers - Journal Publication vs. Report/Thesis Findings Issue

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

In a message dated 12/21/01 12:12:03 PM Pacific Standard Time, jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov writes:



> Steve,
>
> I did not know thyrotoxicosis is radiation related.  Where in the literature is this cause and effect noted?
>
> -- John 


John & Radsafe:

The full citation to Sandler, 1980 as noted in my email concerned the findings of the Ph.D. thesis of Dr. Dale Sandler [awarded by Johns Hopkins 1978] which was summarized in a paper:


Sander, D.P., Matanoski, G.M., Comstock, G.W., and Mitchell, T., "Health Consequences of Nasopharyngeal Radium  Exposure", The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, p. 15-24, appearing in "Symposium on Biological Effects, Imaging Technologies, and Dosimetry of Ionizing Radiations, held Rockville, MD, June 6-8, 1979, US Dept. HHS, Public Health Service, Food and Drug Administration, Bureau of Radiological Health, HHS Publication [FDA] 80-8126, dated July 1980


Don't apologize John for not realizing that solid scientific evidence exists documenting an 8.6 fold Relative Risk for Graves Disease [thyrotoxicosis] per Sandler's thesis and "unpublished" papers, which Sandler felt was due to intense irradiation of the pituitary gland which is located quite proximal to the Eustachian tube opening where the Nasal Radium Irradiation applicators were positioned. Sandler hypothesized that pituitary function was upset due to the irradiation it received in the NRI procedure, and the pituitary's  production of TSH [Thyroid Stimulating Hormone] was out of balance leading to thyrotoxicosis  developing. 


 Even when the Sandler, 1980 BRH paper and thesis findings were brought to the attention of the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments [ACHRE] in 1994 related to a human radiation experiment performed by Johns Hopkins on Baltimore schoolchildren from 1948 -53, the findings of nonmalignant harm were ignored. The ACHRE while judging NRI use on children by Hopkins to have the highest risk to health of excess cancer mortality expressed over a treated subject's lifetime of any of the 4,000 human radiation experiments reviewed,  and despite ACHRE judging NRI experiments on Baltimore children to be the only experiment to exceed the ACHRE threshold  for medical notice and followup by a factor of more than 4, it chose to ignore the strong evidence of benign thyroid health effects which can be quite disabling and easily treated if diagnosed properly.


 Interestingly, even the chairperson of ACHRE, Dr. Ruth Faden of Johns Hopkins Schooled of Public Health, in ACHRE's Final Report to the President in Oct. 1995 did not recuse herself from voting on the issue of NOT recommending medical notice and followup for the Baltimore schoolchildren treated by Johns Hopkins in the human radiation experiment in question. An ethically challenged action by a world renowned bioethicist? Why was this not a surprise?


Stewart [aka Steve to some DC types]

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health

Public Health Sciences

[203] 367-0791

email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com

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