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Problem of doctors referring patients to radiation clinics that they own

Doctors Who ‘Self-Refer’ to Radiation Clinics Add to Patients’ Burden: Study
In Texas, prostate cancer patients had to travel longer distances to use physician-affiliated center   Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) — The practice of referring a cancer patient to a radiation clinic with links to the referring doctor can be difficult for patients, a new study finds.

The study focused on urologists in Texas. It found that the practice caused some men with prostate cancer to travel more than three times farther to receive the treatment they needed.
The researchers said the findings call into question this practice, known as physician self-referral, and highlight concerns about the increase in urology-owned radiation oncology practices.
“Travel time to cancer care centers is crucial, especially for older men with advanced disease, because external radiation therapy often requires daily treatment for six to eight weeks,” Dr. Colleen Lawton, president-elect of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, said in a   news release from the organization. …..

The study is published in the Sept. 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics.

More information The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has more about physician self-referral. http://www.ivillage.com/doctors-who-self-refer-radiation-clinics-add-patients-burden-study/4-a-482061#ixzz24P9awDtk

August 23, 2012 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Areas of naturally high radiation have also higher cancer rates

2004 Study: Two of Brazil’s High Background Radiation Areas Have Higher Cancer Mortality Via : http://ex-skf.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/2004-study-two-of-brazils-high.html quote:  APRIL 14, 2012

I have been told numerous times that “People in naturally high background radiation areas in the world suffer no ill effect from the high radiation.” I just stumbled upon one study in 2004 on such areas in Brazil.

Conclusion of this particular study: Cancer mortality in “Poços de Caldas, and Guarapari is higher than would be expected for their respective reference population”, whereas “cancer mortality for the Araxá population is lower than would be expected”.

International Congress Series
Volume 1276, Pages 3-468 (February 2005)
Link http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/05315131/1276

High Levels of Natural Radiation and Radon Areas: Radiation Dose and Health Effects, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on High Levels of Natural Radiation and Radon Areas, Osaka, Japan
6–10 September 2004… http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/2004-study-two-of-brazils-high-background-radiation-areas-have-higher-cancer-mortality/

August 23, 2012 Posted by | Brazil, health | Leave a comment

Can we trust Nuclear Regulatory Commission to study radiation risks?

Nuclear Regulatory Commission may study power plant health risks Agency considers conducting a large-scale epidemiological study of whether living near a nuclear power plant, such as San Onofre,  raises health risks. Doing so would pose major challenges.By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times August 18, 2012,  
The last time federal officials assessed cancer rates in the communities surrounding nuclear power plants, they concluded that radiation releases were insignificant and health risks, if any, were too small to measure.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissionhas been relying on the results of that 1990 National Cancer Institute study ever since to inform the public about cancer risks posed by the 104 licensed reactors it governs nationwide.

Now, in response to growing concerns that using uranium in the production of electrical energy may be dangerous even without accidents, the NRC is trying to decide if it should launch one of the largest epidemiological studies ever conducted to determine if it is a
health risk to live near a nuclear facility — such as the San Onofre plant in north San Diego County….. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0818-sanonofre-cancer-20120819,0,3382517.story

August 20, 2012 Posted by | Canada, health | Leave a comment

Fukushima radiation effects – grassroots reports

Fukushima Radioactive Contamination Symptoms Research By  /    http://nowarnow.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/fukushima-radioactive-contamination-symptoms-research/19 August, 2012 /   Mirror of Newsletter at  http://frcsrnewsletter.blogspot.com/

In the last ten days, there were multiple reports of changes in white blood cell counts.  In Fukushima-city, 60 kilometers from ground zero, a five-year-old child is already hospitalized with leukemia.  At a Tokyo private medical clinic 250 kilometers from ground zero, it is reported that 700 children have had leukopenia since last April.  This constitutes 80% of children who were seen at this clinic.  There is no end to occurrences of infectious diseases, especially rubella, and reported cases are triple what was reported last year and previous years, according to a summary by Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Reports from members of the general public Continue reading →

August 20, 2012 Posted by | health, Japan | Leave a comment

Disease and death toll from Fukushima radiation needs careful, patient, tracking

[in the 12 months after Fukushima]  an excess of 38,700 Japanese deaths, with no obvious cause.

Nobody should yet race to conclusions that 38,700 Japanese died from Fukushima exposure in the first year after the disaster.  

The final element needed before conclusions are made is patience; vital statistics must continue to be tracked, and compared with radiation exposures to the Japanese people.

[In 2009] A team of Russian researchers, led by Dr. Alexey Yablokov, published results of 5,000 reports and articles on Chernobyl – many in Russian languages never before made public. Yahlokov’s team concluded that near Chernobyl, increases in disease sand deaths were observed for nearly every human organ system.

Let the Counting Begin Fukushima’s Nuclear Casualties http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/15/fukushimas-nuclear-casualties/ by JOSEPH MANGANO, 15 Aug 12 It’s been nearly 18 months since the disastrous nuclear meltdown at Fukushima.  There have been many reports on the huge amounts of radioactivity escaping into the air and water, unusually high levels in air, water, and soil – along with atypically high levels of toxic chemicals in food – that actually “passed” government inspection and wasn’t banned like some other food.

Conspicuously absent are reports on effects of radiation exposure on the health of the Japanese people.  Have any health officials publicly announced post-March 2011 numbers on fetal deaths, infant deaths, premature births, birth defects, cancer, or other health conditions? The answer so far is an emphatic “no.”

The prolonged silence doesn’t mean data doesn’t exist.  Japanese health officials have been busy with their usual duties of collecting and posting statistics on the Internet for public inspection.  It’s just that they aren’t calling the public’s attention to these numbers.
Thus, it is the public who must find the information and figure out what it means.  After locating web sites, translating from Japanese, adding data for each of 12 months, and making some calculations, mortality trends in Japan after Fukushima are emerging. Continue reading →

August 16, 2012 Posted by | health, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

The psychological toll on nuclear workers in Japan

Nuclear Workers Stressed After Japanese Quake Med Page Today, By Michael Smith,  August 14, 2012 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner

Action Points
This study of psychological distress and post-traumatic stress response among workers at two nuclear power plants involved in the Fukushima earthquake/tsunami found high levels of self-reported distress especially among workers at the plant that suffered the meltdown…

Psychological distress and post-traumatic stress response (PTSR) were common among workers at two Japanese nuclear plants in the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, researchers reported. But rates were significantly higher among workers at the Daiichi
plant, which suffered a meltdown, than they were at the Daini plant, which was damaged but remained intact, according to Takeshi Tanigawa, MD, PhD, of Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine in Ehime, Japan, and colleagues.

Both groups of workers were exposed — at much the same rate — to slurs and discrimination because the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plants, was widely criticized for its response to the disaster, Continue reading →

August 16, 2012 Posted by | Japan, psychology - mental health | Leave a comment

Cancer and other diseases in US veterans, due to nuclear radiation

If a Veteran who participated in a radiation-risk activity (including “Atomic Veterans”) develops one of these diseases, VA presumes the disease is related to ionizing radiation exposure during service. These Veterans do not have to prove a connection between these diseases and their military service to be eligible to receive disability compensation.

Diseases Associated with Ionizing Radiation Exposure, United States Department of Veterans Affairs http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/radiation/diseases.asp Veterans may be eligible for disability compensation and health care benefits for any disea Veterans may be eligible for disability compensation and health care benefits for any disease that VA recognizes as related to radiation exposure during military service. Surviving spouses, dependent children and dependent parents of Veterans who died as the result of diseases related to radiation exposure during military service may be eligible for survivors’ benefits.

Also, VA presumes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosed in all Veterans with 90 days or more continuous active military service is related to their service.

Presumptive diseases related to ionizing radiation exposure

VA has recognized, or presumed, certain cancers are related to ionizing radiation exposure during military service. These are called “presumptive diseases.”

Cancers of the bile ducts, bone, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, gall bladder, liver (primary site, but not if cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated), lung (including bronchiolo-alveolar cancer), pancreas, pharynx, ovary, salivary gland, small intestine, stomach, thyroid, urinary tract (kidney/renal, pelvis, urinary bladder, and urethra), leukemia (except chronic lymphocytic leukemia), lymphomas (except Hodgkin’s disease), and multiple myeloma (cancer of plasma cells). Continue reading →

August 13, 2012 Posted by | health, USA | 1 Comment

Radiation danger in dental X rays – shown to raise risk of meningiomas

Dental X-Rays Linked To Meningiomas   http://www.southasiamail.com/news.php?id=106219    13 Aug 12, – W. Gifford-Jones M.D.  What should you do the next time the dentist tells you he or she is going to take full dental X-rays? A new study shows that just as porcupines make love very, very carefully you should also take care to limit the amount of radiation exposure during your lifetime, particularly the amount your children receive.

Dr. Elizabeth Claus of Yale University reports in the American Cancer Society Journal “Cancer”, that there’s a link between dental x-rays and the risk of developing a brain tumour called a meningioma.  Continue reading →

August 13, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, Reference | Leave a comment

Veil of secrecy for families of atomic test veterans

TO THE WIDOWS AND CHILDREN  http://www.atomicvetkin.com/widowschildren.html  You too are the victims of an unconscionable, haphazardly executed military plan to deify the atomic bomb.

Because of “secrecy” surrounding the nuclear test program and the veteran’s “oath of secrecy” very little is known by their families about the veterans involvement and experiences. Widows are often unaware of the veteran’s test participation and that the illness that led to their death was the result of ionizing radiation exposure. You may not be aware that your husband or father died in the service of our country and has made the ultimate sacrifice.
This dedication is to the young women, who along with the Atomic Veterans, were denied the right to know of the possible deleterious effects of radiation exposure on their lives and that of their children. They were denied the right to know that their futures held increased possibilities of any or all of the following effects:  Continue reading →

August 13, 2012 Posted by | social effects, USA, women | 1 Comment

Hibakusha bear witness to nuclear power’s exploitation of indigenous peoples

the world is still full of hibakusha who can testify to the rippling consequences of radiation exposure on health, family and community.

Nuclear testing hibakusha who have been removed from their home communities have suffered the social breakdowns 

They often define themselves in relation to the colonial power that irradiated them, i.e., they are victims of French nuclear testing, of Soviet nuclear testing, of American nuclear testing

Hibakusha: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Beyond . Dr Bo Jacobs  11 Aug 12, http://www.dianuke.org/hibakusha-hiroshima-nagasaki-robert-jacobs/ Hundreds of hibakusha gather in Hiroshima today, and in Nagasaki on 9 August. Many more will stay away from such commemorations, preferring to spend these anniversaries in private. Almost all of these hibakusha were children when their families were attacked with nuclear weapons: and it is these grown children who remain to bear witness.

While over 70,000 people were killed in Hiroshima on the day that the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city center in August 1945, even more people became survivors of that attack. Many tens of thousands would die in the coming weeks, months and years, but some would live long and full lives. Their lives would forever be marked by this experience. Many have never shaken the trauma of expecting that they would die, having watched their family and their friends die, having seen an endless horizon full of the dead and dying and the corpses of people and animals burned beyond recognition, and of seeing their homes and city disappear into fire and rubble.

Beyond the epidemiological and psychological affects on the hibakusha, the social impacts were often as devastating. Experiencing discrimination in marriage and employment, many were also plagued by their own worries about whether to have children, and by anxieties that every subsequent cold or flu that they or their children experienced might be the first signs of an impending fatal illness. In a sense the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki never ended. Continue reading →

August 11, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, history, psychology - mental health, social effects | Leave a comment

Effects of ionising radiation on the brain and other organs

Neuropsychiatric effects of incorporated radionuclides  http://fukushimavoice-eng.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/neuropsychiatric-effects-of.html?spref=tw
http://www.physiciansofchernobyl.org.ua/eng/books/Niagu/pdfs/Chapter6Rev.pdf

Neuropsychiatric Effects of Ionizing Radiation
Chapter 6 Neuropsychiatric Effects of Chronic Irradiation Continue reading →

August 10, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, Reference | Leave a comment

Space Travel – ionising radiation would kill you

How a long mission to Mars could kill you NBC News, By Eric Niiler 7/18/2011 We’ve already “done” the moon, but Mars still beckons like some interplanetary Brigadoon ; visible through the eyes of clever little rovers and orbiters, but just beyond the reach of human footsteps…..

Radiation  The combined effects of background cosmic rays from extragalactic sources and extreme radiation events from the sun make space travel too hazardous for an estimated six months there and six months return. ”The estimate now is you would exceed acceptable levels of fatal cancer,” said Francis Cucinotta, chief scientist for NASA’s space radiation program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “That’s just cancer. We also worry about effects of radiation on the heart and the central nervous system.”

Cucinotta says these estimates do take into account protective shielding around a crew vehicle, probably some form of polyethylene plastic. Lead shields actually create secondary radiation when struck by cosmic rays, while water, perhaps the best form of protection, would have to be several meters thick to get enough protection. (“Houston calling Water Balloon 1, do you copy?”)

Lead and water, in any case, are very heavy for the quantities that would be required, making them an expensive shielding to launch….. studies show that radiation can damage the vitamins in food supplies, and the loss of even one vitamin in the food chain could cause serious health effects over a long trip. Little is known about the long-term effects of radiation on food supplies, since International Space Station (ISS) crews have been partially sheltered by Earth’s magnetosphere.

It’s expected that the crew will have to grow its own food in some kind of greenhouse,… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43796117/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-long-mission-mars-could-kill-you/?__utma=14933801.1192036095.1344035709.1344126652.1344387760.3&__utmb=14933801.1.10.1344387760&__utmc=14933801&__utmx=-&__utmz=14933801.1344387760.3.3.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=14933801.|8=Earned%20By=msnbc%7Ctechnology%20%26%20science%7Cscience%7Ccosmic%20log=1^12=Landing%20Content=Original=1^1

August 8, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, technology | Leave a comment

Top Radiation Expert: 50 Bq/kg in humans leads to irreversible lesions in vital organs — Then top UN official refutes effects of internal radiation (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/must-see-top-radiation-expert-50-bqkg-in-humans-leads-to-irreversible-lesions-in-vital-organs-then-top-un-official-refutes-effects-of-internal-radiation-video
December 10th, 2011
By ENENews Nuclear Controversies by Vladimir Tchertkoff; Released in 2003, 51 minutes
Key Points
Intro – Children’s perspective
2:30 – Agreement between IAEA and WHO – WHO cannot research health
effects of radiation or effects of nuclear accidents if IAEA does not
agree
7:00 – Former head of WHO admits they answer to IAEA
14:00 – Chernobyl had no effect -UN
15:45 – Scientist refutes UN
27:30 – 200km from Chernobyl, 10,000 becquerels measured inside child
30:20 – According to Professor Yury Bandazhevsky (former director of
the Medical Institute in Gomel), Over 50 Bq/kg of body weight lead to
irreversible lesions in vital organs
30:50 – *MUST SEE* Refutes internal radiation! -Norman Gentner,
Secretary of UN UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the
Effects of Atomic Radiation), ~2001 (See Gentner speak at 13:55 — No
increase in leukemia, even among liquidators)
34:15 – *MUST SEE* Internal or external it makes no difference!
45:20 – Internal lesions
49:25 – Now only 20 out of 100 considered healthy, before it was 80 out of 100

August 8, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

« Canadian Nuclear Expert: Reactor is releasing 200 trillion becquerels of tritium every year — Becomes a part of your body and all living things — Gives off beta particles which produce damage that can result in cancer (AUDIO)
http://enenews.com/govt-releases-last-years-tests-contamination-detected-sea-japan-airborne-material-blamed-includes-niigata-shizuoka-iwate
  July 2012: Fukushima Man has 20,000 becquerels of cesium in body —
Wife has 10,000 Bq »
Gov’t Releases Last Year’s Tests: “Contamination detected even in the
Sea of Japan” — “Airborne material” blamed — Includes Niigata,
Shizuoka, and Iwate

August 5th, 2012
By ENENews
Title: Radioactive cesium found off of Niigata, Shizuoka, Iwate
coasts: gov’t study
Source: Mainichi
Date: August 4, 2012
Radioactive cesium likely from the Fukushima nuclear disaster was
detected last year in a survey of ocean waters and fish off Niigata,
Shizuoka, and Iwate prefectures, the government announced on Aug. 3.
“Even if taken internally, the radiation levels detected are not a
risk to human health,” the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology stated. The ministry added it believes the
small amount of contamination detected even in the Sea of Japan off
Niigata was probably originally airborne material that made it to
coastal waters through rain and river courses.

[…] […]

Test results:
In May last year that there were 9.1 millibecquerels of radioactive
cesium per liter of seawater off Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture
In December, the survey found two becquerels per kilogram in a type of
flounder in [Shizuoka]
In May last year, the survey found dried sea floor dirt from the
southeast of Sado Island […] was contaminated with 31 becquerels of
cesium per kilogram
In the ocean off Yamada, Iwate Prefecture […] 0.7 becquerels per
liter of seawater were detected in May 2011

August 8, 2012 Posted by | Canada, health | Leave a comment

When radioactive cesium enters body, 75% lodges in muscle tissue
including heart http://enenews.com/when-radioactive-cesium-enters-body-75-lodges-in-muscle-tissue-including-heart May 6th, 2012   By ENENews

The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a
Ticking Time-Bomb
Alternet
Brad Jacobson
May 4, 2012

[…] Nuclear experts noted that other lethal radioactive isotopes
would also be released in such a fire, but that the focus is on
cesium-137 because it easily volatilizes and spreads pervasively, as
it did during the Chernobyl accident and again after the disaster at
Fukushima Daiichi last year.

With a half-life of 30 years, it gives off penetrating radiation as it
decays and can remain dangerous for hundreds of years. Once in the
environment, it mimics potassium as it accumulates in the food chain;
when it enters the human body, about 75 percent lodges in muscle
tissue, including the heart. […]

August 8, 2012 Posted by | Fukushima 2012, health | Leave a comment

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