health « nuclear-news

Trinidad’s scandal of over-radiated cancer patients

The radiation incident at BLCTC has been shrouded in secrecy from the outset

Over-radiated cancer patients at Lara Centre… Trinidad Express, By Camini Marajh Head Investigative Desk Story Apr 14, 2012 Ninety-one or 40.8 per cent of the 223 cancer patients over-radiated by the Brian Lara Cancer Treatment Centre (BLCTC) are dead.
Continuing Sunday Express investigations into the radiation over-exposure incident at the private facility which is owned by powerful business interests reveal that the board and management of BLCTC failed internationally accepted guidelines on several critical
fronts, specifically: Continue reading →

April 16, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, OCEANIA, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Fukushima radiation leaks bringing sickness to children

Japanese professor says Fukushima radiation leaks are harming children’s health http://www.straight.com/article-660131/vancouver/japanese-professor-says-fukushima-radiation-leaks-are-harming-childrens-health
VIDEO Radio host Steve Zeltzer conducted the interview Akira Murakami’s comments about children’s health are at 13:37 of the video.

By Charlie Smith, April 13, 2012 A media professor at Akia University in Japan has claimed that
children in his country are suffering serious medical problems as a result of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In an interview on WorkWeek Radio (which works with Project Censored), Prof. Akira “Lazy Cat” Murakami linked the leak of radiation to kids have suffering nosebleeds, skin diseases, short tempers, and cardiovascular diseases.

Murakami said that the Japanese mainstream media is not covering the impacts, but this information is being disseminated to Japanese people through cyberspace.

“Our food regulations are quite loose,” Murakami said. “We have only spot inspections.” He called on Americans to do whatever they can to shut down remaining nuclear reactors.

“This planet could not afford another Chernobyl or another Fukushima,” he said.

April 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Japan, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Navajo’s continuing cancer danger from uranium mines

Navajos will continue to be exposed to uranium and its decay products, radon and radium. This means that they are at great risk for bone, liver, breast, and lung cancer, among other health problems….

Uranium Mines Still Pose Serious Health Threat on Navajo Land, Web Wire 12 April 12, In 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry Gordy discovered an abandoned uranium mine in the middle of his grazing land in Cameron, AZ, according to the New York Times. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) visited the site and found dangerously high levels of uranium, but the agency has yet to begin the clean-up.

The EPA found that the radioactivity there measured one million counts per minute, meaning that two days there would expose a person to more external radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year. A dose would lead directly to malignant tumors and other health problems. Continue reading →

April 13, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, indigenous issues, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Warning on radiation -cancer risk from too many dental X rays

Dental x-rays linked to brain tumours, ABC News, 10 April 12, People who get regular dental x-rays are more likely to suffer a type of brain tumour, according to new research, suggesting that yearly exams may not be best for most patients. The study in the US journal Cancer showed people diagnosed with meningioma who reported having a yearly bitewing exam were 1.4 times to 1.9 times as likely as a healthy control group to have developed such tumours.

A bitewing exam involves an x-ray film being held in place by a tab between the teeth. Also, people who reported getting a yearly panorex exam – in which an x-ray is taken outside the mouth and shows all the teeth on one film – were 2.7 to three times more likely to develop cancer, said the study.

A meningioma is a tumour that forms in the membrane around the brain or spinal cord. Most of the time these tumours are benign and slow growing, but they can lead to disability or life-threatening conditions. The research, led by Elizabeth Claus of the Yale University School of Medicine, was based on data from 1433 US patients who were diagnosed with the tumours between the ages of ages 20 and 79 years. For comparison, researchers consulted data from a control group of 1350 individuals who had similar characteristics but had not been diagnosed with a meningioma.

Dental patients today are exposed to lower radiation levels than they were in the past, but the research should prompt dentists and patients to re-examine when and why dental x-rays are given, says Claus. ”The study presents an ideal opportunity in public health to increase awareness regarding the optimal use of dental x-rays, which unlike many risk factors is modifiable,” she says…… http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/10/3474085.htm

April 11, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear radiation is more harmful to women than to men

Mary Olson on how women are more vulnerable to atomic radiation, http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=5755 7 April 12 This week’s guest is biologist Mary Olson, Southeast Regional Coordinator with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) in the U.S., an organization that provides information to citizens concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues. In her 21st year of this work, Olson has come to focus on the disproportionate impact that exposure to ionizing radiation has on women and children. Her recent paper entitled “Atomic Radiation is More Harmful to Women”reveals information the National Academy of Sciences BEIR (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation) VII report includes, but does not discuss.

April 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health, Resources -audiovicual, women | Leave a comment

60 years later, radiation from Mayak nuclear plant still taking its toll

Many people we spoke to say they are being used as human guinea pigs. They talk of a secret government experiment looking at the effects of radiation exposure on humans.

They say they have to go to a hospital in Chelyabinsk, the regional capital around 50km away, for treatment of the various radiation related illnesses they suffer.

Living in a nuclear hell, Aljazeera, By Charles Stratford in Europe , 2012-04-04 The town of Muslymovo has to be one of the saddest places on earth. The thousands of people who have little choice but to live here, on the banks of the Techa river not far from Russia’s
southern border with Kazakhstan, are the victims of a nuclear disaster that began more than six decades ago.

They are still suffering with the consequences of life next door to the Mayak nuclear plant – still dying from the radiation-related illnesses that have claimed the lives of so many before them. Continue reading →

April 5, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Reference, Russia | Leave a comment

Health risks of cattle grazing on radioactively contaminated land

Uranium, Cattle Grazing and Risks Unknown NYT. By LESLIE MACMILLAN 4 April 12, As I reported last weekend in The Times, a cattle rancher stumbled upon an abandoned uranium mine in the summer of 2010 on his grazing land, about 60 miles east of the Grand Canyon on the Navajo reservation, and notified federal officials. They came in with Geiger counters and found levels of radioactivity that were alarmingly high.

A year and a half later, the former mine in Cameron, Ariz., is not fenced off to either humans or animals, and cattle continue to roam through the site and eat grass that might be tainted with uranium and other toxic substances.

“Those cattle go to auction in Sun Valley and are sold on the open market,” said Ronald Tohannie, a project manager with the Navajo advocacy groupForgotten People. “Then people eat the meat.” Continue reading →

April 5, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

USA Navy veterans were exposed to ionising radiation

Federal hearings confirm Navy veterans exposed to leaking radiation first revealed by News Channel 5 By: Ron Regan, newsnet5.com 5 April 12, SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Federal hearings confirm how Navy veterans were unwittingly exposed to leaking radiation that was first revealed in a series of exclusive 5 On Your Side investigations.

U.S. Navy veterans serving at McMurdo Station, Antarctica have long suspected that cancer deaths among those who served at the base in the 1960s and 70s may have been connected to a nuclear plant constructed at the base. Continue reading →

April 5, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | Leave a comment

Ontario city of Peterborough concerned over nuclear radiation and health

“The main health related concern is the potential direct and indirect effects on DNA and the damage that could result in cancer, teratogenic, reproductive and hereditary effects,”

Peterborough raises radiation concerns Toronto Sun, SARAH DEETH, QMI AGENCY, APRIL 03, 2012 PETERBOROUGH, ONT. – The city of Peterborough, Ont., has raised concerns about human and environmental exposure to radiation levels at a local nuclear processing plant. Continue reading →

April 4, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, health | Leave a comment

CT scans a radiation concern, especially for young patients with gastrointestinal illnesses

Patients with digestive disorders may receive high levels of X-ray radiation Medical Express, March 29, 2012 Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other gastrointestinal (GI) disorders may be exposed to significant doses of diagnostic radiation, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

“Our results show that significant increases in radiation exposure in the last decade have paralleled the increased use of computed tomography imaging,” said Alan N. Desmond, MB, BMedSc, MRCPI, of the Cork University Hospital, Ireland, and lead author of this study. “While cumulative exposure is highest in patients with Crohn’s disease, high exposure may also occur in patients with other gastrointestinal disorders.”….

because CT uses higher levels of radiation than other imaging options, more widespread use has led to increases in the amount of radiation to which patients are exposed. This is a cause for concern, because radiation exposure might be associated with increased lifetime risk of
cancer. These risks may be particularly relevant to younger patients.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-patients-digestive-disorders-high-x-ray.html

March 30, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | Leave a comment

Radiation risk is real, despite what Lynas and Malaysian government say

Let’s de-politicise the Lynas issue — Stop Lynas Coalition, The Malaysian Insider, March 21, 2012 The majority of us anti-Lynas people feel offended by the government’s unending insistence the issue is politicised. We feel belittled by a government that does not see us rakyat as capable of thinking for ourselves, and so easily hoodwinked by the opposition.

They insist on talking facts, which came to mean solely the IAEA review report, but completely ignored all other dissenting opinions, even if these dissenting opinions are voiced by esteemed professional bodies such as the Bar Council and the Malaysian Medical Association. Perhaps, their members are somehow misled too.

These opinions are raised over time in published articles and public feedback and they have either been poorly addressed, or completely ignored. I hope to raise 3 main ones in this article and request that the government gives them befitting consideration so that we can de-politicise this Lynas issue.

a) The radiation risk is greater than what Lynas and the Malaysian government are willing to admit Continue reading →

March 22, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Malaysia, Reference, Uranium | Leave a comment

Israel to replace nuclear reactor with linear accelerator for nuclear medicine

Israel to phase out civilian atomic reactor by 2018 Particle accelerator to replace aging, fuel-short reactor By Dan Williams SOREQ, Israel, March 20 (Reuters) – Israel is phasing out a civilian nuclear reactor to which it has admitted foreign inspectors while keeping a second reactor, widely believed to have produced atom bombs, off-limits, officials said on Tuesday.

The small facility at Soreq, which began operations in 1960 with a one-time stock of uranium fuel from the United States, will be replaced by 2017 or 2018 by a particle accelerator fulfilling many of the same research and medical functions…..
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/israel-nuclear-idUSL6E8EK3AS20120320

March 21, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Israel | Leave a comment

The problem of secondary cancer after radiation therapy

Radiation treatments: Create worse cancer cells — 30 times more potent The Canadian : 19 MARCH 2012 BY TONY ISAACS (NaturalNews) — In a groundbreaking new study just published in the peer reviewed journal Stem Cells, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Department of Oncology found that, despite killing half of all tumor cells per treatment, radiation treatments on breast cancer transforms other cancer cells into cancer stem cells which are vastly more treatment-resistant than normal cancer cells.

The new study is yet another blow to the failed and favored mainstream treatment paradigm of trying to cut out, poison out or burn out cancer symptoms (tumors) instead of actually curing cancer.

Senior study author Dr. Frank Pajonk, associate professor of radiation oncology at the Jonsson Center, reported that induced breast cancer stem cells (iBCSC) “were generated by radiation-induced activation of the same cellular pathways used to reprogram normal cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) in regenerative medicine.” Pjonk, who is also a scientist with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine at UCLA, added “It was remarkable that these breast cancers used the same reprogramming pathways to fight back against the radiation treatment.”..

… Despite all the billions of dollars spent on cancer, the 40 year “war on cancer” has been a losing one by any honest evaluation. One hundred years ago, anywhere from 1 in 50 to
perhaps 1 in 100 people could be expected to develop cancer. Now it is estimated that 1 in every 2 men and 1 in every 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. Despite more people around the world developing cancer and dying from cancer every year, mainstream medicine continues to cling to failed treatments which more often than not fail to eliminate the cancer and help cancer spread and return more aggressively than ever. Notably, two of the three major mainstream cancer treatments – radiation and chemo – are themselves highly carcinogenic……. http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/health/2012/03/19/3511.html

March 20, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Fukushima cancer toll – years later, especially for nuclear clean-up workers

One group particularly at risk of health harm is the large and growing number of workers required to help control, shut down and clean up the damaged nuclear plants.

On average, the contracted day labourers receive two- to three-times the radiation dose of a regular worker but are not included in utility statistics. And there is no compulsory, centralised system for tracking cumulative radiation exposure or health outcomes of these workers.

Fukushima radiation toll will continue for generations Despite claims that Japan’s Fukushima meltdown caused no deaths, in fact the true health costs of Fukushima’s radiation leaks won’t be known for decades. Independent Australia 18 March 12, Professor Tilman Ruff reports. A year can be a long time in politics. But for the radioactive particles released from Fukushima’s damaged nuclear reactor, a year is just a moment in their life of hundreds or thousands of years.

So, what is the radiological situation at Fukushima one year after the disaster? the extensively damaged plants are still unstable and highly radioactive. This has restricted access and clean-up efforts, which will need to go on for many decades.

Though Japanese authorities declared they’d achieved a “cold shutdown” in December, an arbitrary definition was used: coolant water temperature was less than boiling, pressure inside the reactors was not raised, and the release of radioactive materials from the first layer of containment was below a specified level. But it didn’t mean the nuclear reaction inside the reactors had been stably shut down…. Continue reading →

March 20, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Japan | Leave a comment

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