Nasal Radium Irradiation [NRI] Feature Article -Boston Globe Magazine -1/31/99

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

Dear Radsafe colleagues:

RE: Nasal Radium Irradiation History and Health Risks

 <A HREF="http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/1-31/featurestory1.shtml/";>
Click here: Boston.com / Boston Globe Magazine</A>

The above link will take you to a lengthy feature article ["Worse than the
disease"] in the Sunday Boston Globe Magazine for Jan. 31, 1999 about the use
of Nasal Radium Irradiation on children and veterans. The procedure, which had
fallen into the dustbin of medical history, was used to shrink hypertrophied
adenoids and tonsils in an estimated 570,000 to 2.6 million young children
[per 1995 CDC estimates] from post WW. II. through 1961 alone.  NRI treatments
involved the insertion of 50 mg Ra-226 sources, encased in 0.3 mm Monel to
maximize beta dose in the first cm of tissue, with doses falling off sharply
with distance from the source. During WW. II, NRI was used in human
experiments on 7,613 Army Air Force crew members and submariner trainees [per
published reports in the open medical literature] to treat pressure
equalization problems. Doses to the nasopharynx [for the standard post-W.W.II
protocol used on children involving three, 12 minute irradiations, applied
bilaterally] are calculated at no less than 2,000 rad on contact [see Farber,
1992 - see Annotated bibliography at REAP web site], although measurements
made using the Monel metal radium applicators observed a contact dose of about
13,000 rad in a routine course of therapy. Thyroid doses to the youngest
children treated from direct radiation were stated by Sandler, 1980  as being
up to 100 rad. Doses to the pituitary gland of young children was about 50 to
100 rads while the BEIR-V Report estimated brain doses of from 15 to 40 rad
with Relative Risk= 5.3 for brain cancer mortality in NRI treated children per
Sander, 1982,  in a study of 904 children [for which it was able to track 667]
who received NRI treatments at a Johns Hopkins hearing loss clinic in
Hagerstown followed for 24 years. This was based on 3 brain cancer deaths vs.
0.57 expected, and is statistically significant at the p=0.01 level.  A
recently published update of the Hagerstown cohort [Yeh, 1997] based on a Ph.D
thesis at Hopkins School of Public Health which is being kept out of public
view,  observed that in the approximately 650 children it was able to follow
from 1978 to 1996 there occured 4 additional brain tumors for a total of 7
brain tumors or cancer deaths among 650 children followed for 42 years. This
recent finding shows the excess brain cancer risk has not leveled off but
appears to be continuing, along with several other types of  tumors showing up
more than 25 years post irradiation. The latest study by Yeh  found 3 salivary
gland cancers where none were observed in a control group twice as large, and
a RR for thyroid cancer of 4.2, not observed earlier by Sandler, 1980.

The Boston Globe article contains a number of technical errors and fails to
not clearly make certain points. Unfortunately, it was not possible to proof
it before publication for technical accuracy or context after providing
extensive input to the reporter, Bob Keough.  However, the article is  a
valuable, and substantial addition to information in the public domain about
this important public health issue. 

For more than 20 years, various governmental and medical institutions have
ignored, misrepresented, or suppressed a growing body of scientific knowledge
about the health risks of and public health mandates of the Nasal Radium
Irradiation issue. The 1,000,000 or so [best estimate] individuals treated
with NRI as children [and now about 50 years old on averag] represent a
special population at risk, for which the CDC and other government agencies
have totally failed in their responsibilites to provide prudent medical notice
and follow up recommendations.

If anyone wants more information about the NRI issue, after reading the Boston
Globe article, they can go to the Radium Experiment Assessment Project [REAP]
website noted below.



Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Director - Radium Experiment Assessment Project [REAP]
19 Stuart St.
Pawtucket, RI 02860

Phone/FAX: (401) 727-4947  E-mail: radproject@usa.net
            Web address: http://www.delphi.com/carsreap


The Radium Experiment Assessment Project [REAP] is a project 
of the Center for Atomic Radiation Studies, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3)
organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
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