Re: RE thyroid cancer anf fallout

[Andy Hull <hull@mail.sep.bnl.gov>]

At 02:44 PM 7/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Group:
>Here's a paper on this topic.
>
>Lloyd, R. D.; Tripp, D. A.; Kerber, R. A. Limits of fetal thyroid risk
>from radioiodine exposure. Health Phys. 70:559-562; 1996.
>Quotation from the Conclusion:
>Concern for the possible consequences to the fetus of radioiodine
>administration to its mother 9 d before conception motivated us to
>search the data base for the Utah Fallout study (Stevens et al.)to
>discover what effects had been documented among subjects exposed to
>fallout radioiodine in utero. Not only was it found that no neoplasia
>had occurred among this population, but there were no thyroid effects of
>any kind in the persons with the highest thyroid doses (>0.5 Gy). Other,
>non-neoplastic effects were about as common among subjects at the lowest
>dose category (<0.01 Gy) as among those receiving 0.01-0.2 Gy,
>indicating that any possible link with radiation exposure was extremely
>weak. As an added bonus of this investigation, it was found that,
>although the uncertainties were rather large, the fetal thyroid is
>probably not much more sensitive to radiation-induced neoplastic change
>than is the postnatal thyroid.
>
>Stevens, W.; Thomas, D. C.; Lyon, J.L.; Till, J. E.; Kerber, R. A.;
>Simon, S. L.; Lloyd, R. D.; Abd Elghany, N.; Preston-Martin, S. Leukemia
>in Utah and radioactive from the Nevada Test Site. JAMA 264:585-591;
>1990
>
>
>-- 
>Wade
>
>mailto:hwade@triax.com
>
>H.Wade Patterson
>1116 Linda Lane
>Lakeview OR 97630
>ph 541 947-4974
>
For a comprehensive review of the post-Chernobyl Thyroid effects, I
recommend the proceedings of the EC/IAEA/WHO sponsored International
Conference "One Decade after Chernobyl:Summing Up the Consequences of the
Accident: Summing Up the Consequences of the Accident", in particular
Session 2, "Effects on the Thyroid in populations Exposed to Radiations as a
Result of the Chernobyl Accident", which I attended as an HPS Newsletter
Correspondent. Although I can't find the brochure from the IAEA, these
proceedings have subsequently been pu published by it.  Absent few timely
measurements were made,so that he dosimetry consists of informed estimates,
it is clear that infants and very young children were more sensitive by a
factor of from five to ten than suggested from comparisons to the
sensitivity previously derived from X-ray experience.

Some illuminations on the reasons why may be found in the Proceedings of a
July 1988 Joint WHO/CEC Workshop "Iodine Prophylaxis Following Nuclear
Accidents", Pergamon Press, 1990.

Andy Hull
S&EP Div. BN:
Upton, N.Y. 11973 USA
Ph. 516-344-4210
Fax 516-344-4210

 







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