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Thanks Jerry
-- that's interesting.
I suppose
that if nearly 2000 people have this surgery, mistakes are bound to
happen.
Worse yet,
its not impossible that had the deceased not had the thyroid removed, he/she
might never even have gotten cancer.
I recall from
the well-documented Marshall Islands story (contamination from the Castle Bravo
thermonuclear test), many thyroidectomies were performed more-or-less on a
precautionary basis.
No doubt that
practice became particularly common after one thyroid cancer went untreated and
the young man died.
The number of
affected Marshallese was quite small, but if you've got thousands of patients,
the small risk involved in surgery may translate into a few deaths -- maybe more
deaths than if no surgery were performed.
Who knows
?
Then I guess
the decision making becomes complicated -- to operate, or not to operate
?
Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jaro,
Re: "Tragically, three or four children died of
this cancer."
Several years ago, I inquired about
about these deaths from some medical colleagues in France and was told by one
of them that some of the surgeries to remove the thyroid gland in these
children were not carried very well. He believes these deaths were
caused by the surgery and not by thyroid cancer.
From the screening that was carried
out after the disaster, it is not known how many of the thyroid cancers
were malignant and how many were occult.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2005 9:07
AM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] RE: Chernobyl in
today's star
Dear
Andrew,
When the
media decide to perpetuate a favorite myth, its very difficult to
counter.
This is
plainly evident from the fact that even well respected authorities have had
little success in reversing the tide of ignorance and
superstition.
I attach
a couple of examples concerning Chernobyl here.
The first is from the Chairman of the United Nations
Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), Lars-Erik
Holm, addresed to The Lancet.
The second is addressed to Kofi A. Annan,
Secretary-General of the
United
Nations.
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