Re: Nasal Treatment with RF?- vs. Nasal Radium/X-rays "Historic"Treatments

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/30/99 3:22:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, FIELDRW@aol.com 
writes:


<< Subj:     Re: Nasal Treatment with RF?
 Date:  11/30/99 3:22:26 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:   FIELDRW@aol.com
 
 Scott,
 
 I did not see the news telecast you saw.  
 
 But, I think it is importanrt to remember the historic treatments were just 
 not radium irradiation.  In some cases, x-rays were used.
 
 Regards, Bill Field
 College of Public Health
 Department of Epidemiology
 University of Iowa >>

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Dear Radsafe:

It is worth noting that the use of Nasal Radium Irradiation to shrink tonsils 
and adenoids in young children is, for many individuals, not that distant in 
the past or "historic", to use Dr. Field's word, as  most including the CDC 
asssume. The US Centers for Disease Control has derived a very rough estimate 
that from 571,000 to 2.6 million children received NRI treatments in the US 
from 1946 - 1961. 

However, in the contacts by members of the public with the Radium Experiment 
Assessment Project following major news coverage of this issue in the 
Maryland area in 1997, over 100 out of 1,000 callers to REAP were treated in 
Maryland into the 1970s. 

The use of NRI was particularly popular in MD because the treatment was 
developed at Johns Hopkins and popularized there through "hearing loss 
conservation" programs for schoolchildren run by the State of Maryland, Johns 
Hopkins, and other entities starting in the 1940s. MD residents had the 
highest per capita use of NRI of any state in the US.  However, the use of 
NRI did not suddenly end in MD in the early 1960s,  but continued for more 
than another 10 years for several reasons. Many MD private physicians had 
been trained at Hopkins and used the procedure long after it generally faded 
in other parts of the country due to concerns about long-term health effects 
and the availability of alternate surgical treatments for otitis media in 
children such as T-tubes. 

Stewart Farber, MSPH
Director, Radium Experiment Assessment Project

website: http://www.delphi.com/carsreap
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