2009 August 17 « nuclear-news

Ionising radiation causing rise in thyroid cancer

Your Health: Rise in thyroid cancer may be tied to radiation

By Kim Painter, USA TODAY 16 August 09

A medical mystery: As overall cancer rates fall, why are thyroid cancer rates rising? Diagnoses of cancer in this gland in the neck are increasing about 6% a year, faster than cancers found anywhere else, according to one National Cancer Institute analysis.

Researchers know one big reason: The many medical scans Americans have, for everything from neck pain to artery plaque, are turning up thousands of tiny thyroid tumors that otherwise might go undetected and often would do no harm.

“We call them ‘incidentalomas,’ ” says Amy Chen, a head and neck surgeon at Emory University in Atlanta and American Cancer Society researcher.

But that’s not the whole story. Two recent studies, including one co-written by Chen, show larger thyroid tumors are being found at an increasing rate, too. And those can’t be explained by more aggressive diagnosis alone, researchers say.

“There is something else going on” to contribute to the 37,000 cases of thyroid cancer expected this year, Chen says. That’s up from 18,000 in 2000.

Your Health: Rise in thyroid cancer may be tied to radiation – USATODAY.com

August 17, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, environment, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive | Leave a comment

Malaysia: Nuclear Energy Costly and Unsafe

Costly and unsafe – opinion from Malaysia
August 16, 2009
The threat of another Chernobyl and the question of where to dump the waste are key arguments against nuclear power.AS mankind begins to come to terms with the fact that oil will run out in the not-too-distant future, nuclear power advocates trumpet a solution that is “clean, efficient, safe and, in some cases, environmentally friendly.

………………..Elizabeth Wong, the Selangor Exco for Tourism, Consumer Affairs and the Environment, says nuclear energy is not a safe option for the future.

“Contrary to the claims of the nuclear industry and the federal government, nuclear energy is neither safe nor inexpensive. It is also not a solution to climate change. Nuclear power usage has environmental, health, and security risks that make it an undesirable substitute for fossil fuels.

Costly and unsafe

August 17, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, ASIA, business and costs | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive | Leave a comment

Radiation Contamination by Depleted Uranium

High Tech Weaponry used in Gaza: Radiation contamination by Depleted Uranium

by Peter Eyre, Global Research, August 14, 2009
I am a Middle East Consultant living in the UK and would like all people living in or near areas of conflict to understand the High Tech Weaponry used by many military establishments worldwide, especially the US (the manufacturers) and other NATO forces.

The reason for pointing this out to you is as a response to my research on the terrible rise in cancer related deaths. This is not only confined to military personnel in the battle zone but also the indiscriminate contamination of civilians, field crops and water supplies in the immediate area as well as the adjacent areas/countries. Below is my report:

Concerns regarding radiation contamination by the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Eastern Mediterranean Countries.

The majority of high tech weapons today contain Depleted Uranium and or other Heavy Metals. Some are coated in DU and others have both DU and Heavy Metal in their warheads. DU is also used to act as a counterweight.

Both DU and heavy metals have the ability to kill indiscriminately subject to how such weapons are used and if those weapons are used in densely populated areas. In the case of the latter and in the context of the Geneva Convention it would be illegal to use such weapons in populated areas like Lebanon and Gaza.

The National Academy of Sciences in their BEIR VII report, regarding low level radiation, stated that there “is no safe level of exposure”. The report also finally admitted that very low levels are more harmful per unit of radiation than higher levels of exposure; also know as the suppralinear effect.

The European Parliament has expressed grave concerns on the use of such weapons………………………

Other nations are also currently using these weapons (NATO) especially in Afghanistan and over the border in Pakistan. One must accept that this is also a crime if civilian populations are involved. However, it doesn’t match up to using them on such dense enclaves as Gaza.

If government are allowing their own troops to become victims of such weapons then they also should be held to account. More importantly the country of origin (namely the US) and their respective arms developers are equally to blame for this inhumane use of DU weaponry.

I hope you appreciate my way of thinking and agree that it doesn’t really matter how people are dying. They are dying without just cause in the most terrible way and that is an act against mankind……………………
……….All of my research experts state it is radiation alpha particles from uranium atoms that cause the problem, and this type of contamination can be measured very precisely. It is the alpha particle that once inside your body runs rife and the rate and type of “Cancer” is subject to if it was inhaled or ingested. The latter is caused mainly in areas where DU dust has spread in the atmosphere and returned to earth in precipitation.