Nasal Irradiation

[Philip Hypes <phypes@nis5.lanl.gov>]

Mr. Farber's recent posting on the history of Nasal Irradiation
at Hopkins seemed clear and believable to me.  I believe he
mentioned in an earlier message that one or more reporters
had been misinformed about the status of Yeh's research.  If
that is the case, perhaps he should forward his message to
those individuals.  If they were told by those who knew better
that the research did not indicate significantly elevated health
risks, that could constitute a cover up.  However, I think we've
beaten this horse to death.  The HP issue here is the fact that
2,000 rad to a portion of the body apparently raises the risk
of cancer.  To quote Iago the Parrot, "I think I'm going to have
a heart attack from NOT surprise!"  (What movie? Anyone?
Anyone?)  Did the study address the latency period(s) involved?
Do we expect more cancers in the future?  If so, it seems to
me that those who had this procedure should be informed of
their risks and monitored.  That monitoring would cost $$$.
Where do you think people might look for that money?  If the
procedure was the standard of care at the time, is the treating
facility responsible for any costs today?  If a facility used the
procedure after it was discontinued everywhere else, is that
facility responsible for the treatments that took place in that
time period?  Maybe we could discuss some of these questions,
and get past this Mulder and Scullyish coverup debate.


___________________________________________________________
Philip Hypes
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Safegaurds Science and Technology Group (NIS 5)
(505) 667-1556  phypes@lanl.gov

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