Environment & Energy

FBaggins

(26,742 posts) Sun Mar 10, 2013, 06:17 PM Mar 2013

Thyroid Control Screening Reveals Much Higher Percentages of Cysts and Nodules...

...in Children Far Away from Fukushima

Expect more anti's to jump on the Busby bus any day now. Will it have any impact on their presentations at their "symposium" this week? Inquiring minds want to know.

Fukushima thyroid lumps 'not unusual'

Thyroid lumps detected in children in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, appear at almost the same rate as in children from three other prefectures, according to the Environment Ministry. In the survey, a total of 4,365 people aged between 3 and 18 in the three prefectures of Aomori, Yamanashi and Nagasaki underwent the same ultrasound examination being performed on children in Fukushima.

The survey, conducted from November last year, found that 2,469 of them, or 56.6 percent, have lumps measuring 5 millimeters or smaller, or cysts of 20 millimeters or smaller in their thyroid glands in a status known as A2, the ministry said in a preliminary report Friday. Forty-four, or 1 percent, are in status B, having larger lumps or cysts that require further examination, the report said.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130309003813.htm

Ministry: Rate of Fukushima thyroid abnormalities roughly normal

More than 40 percent of children from Fukushima Prefecture tested for thyroid abnormalities, such as small cysts or lumps, but that rate is not troubling because it roughly matches data elsewhere in Japan, the Environment Ministry said March 8. "The results in Fukushima Prefecture were approximately the same as in the other prefectures," said Yasuo Kiryu, a senior ministry official in charge of radiological health control.

...snip...

But there was no telling if that incidence rate was particularly high or reflected contamination from radioactive iodine released from the nuclear plant because it was the first time high-performance ultrasound devices had been used to test children's thyroid glands in such a comprehensive study.

To obtain control data for comparison, the Environment Ministry tested 4,365 children aged between 3 and 18 in three other cities far from Fukushima, using ultrasound devices of the same performance and diagnostic standards

...snip...

"The survey found that the situation in Fukushima is not abnormal," said Shigenobu Nagataki, a professor emeritus of radiology at Nagasaki University.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201303090076

5 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Thyroid Control Screening Reveals Much Higher Percentages of Cysts and Nodules... (Original Post) FBaggins Mar 2013 OP

Overall high contamination = many with thyroid issues. :( uppityperson Mar 2013 #1

Nope. These are areas with comparatively little I131 contamination. FBaggins Mar 2013 #2

Worldwide, there is too many with thyroid issues. Glad there isn't impact there at this point. uppityperson Mar 2013 #3

True enough. FBaggins Mar 2013 #4

No, it's much better test resolution Yo_Mama Mar 2013 #5

uppityperson

(115,677 posts)

1. Overall high contamination = many with thyroid issues. :(

Reply to FBaggins (Original post)

Sun Mar 10, 2013, 06:24 PM

Mar 2013

Those nearest Fukishima are the same rate? That is good but overall is not.

FBaggins

(26,742 posts)

2. Nope. These are areas with comparatively little I131 contamination.

Reply to uppityperson (Reply #1)

Sun Mar 10, 2013, 06:32 PM

Mar 2013

Hundreds of kilometers from the plants.

These have been baseline surveys to help identify health impacts in the future. They didn't expect to find ANY impact from radiation at this point (it's too soon).

uppityperson

(115,677 posts)

3. Worldwide, there is too many with thyroid issues. Glad there isn't impact there at this point.

Reply to FBaggins (Reply #2)

Sun Mar 10, 2013, 06:40 PM

Mar 2013

FBaggins

(26,742 posts)

4. True enough.

Reply to uppityperson (Reply #3)

Wed Mar 20, 2013, 11:18 AM

Mar 2013

One thing to add though... there is a great deal of thought now that many thyroid issues really aren't a concern. Some studies have shown that as many as half of the subjects in some autopsy studies actually had thyroid cancer and never new it (died of something entirely unrelated). So some scientists are beginning to wonder whether we're treating some people who never needed it.

Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)

5. No, it's much better test resolution

Reply to uppityperson (Reply #1)

Wed Mar 20, 2013, 11:54 AM

Mar 2013

There wasn't any significant I-131 contamination in the other areas tested.

It was known that the new higher-resolution ultrasound can find very tiny lumps and cysts, almost all of which pose no health risk. But this big a survey of this type has never been done on "normal" Japanese kids before, so they had to do one to get a baseline.

In fact, the results showed that the Fukushima pop tested somewhat lower for incidence than the other Japanese populations. That is something of a surprise, although the results aren't extreme.

Most lesions found on high res scanning of thyroids are utterly innocuous, and they are found at a very high rate.

Take a look at incidence rates in the US:
http://www.penncancer.org/pdf/LangerThyroidNodules.pdf

Problems would only start to appear in 5 or 10 years, if then (the actual rate of exposure is theorized to be pretty low), so the first sets of scans were really for a baseline.

Regarding FBaggins comment on many thyroid issues detected by ultrasound not being a concern:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017873/

The role of a screening test for thyroid nodules is limited. Because of the very high prevalence of thyroid nodules and the very good prognosis and survival rate, the current consensus is that a screening test for thyroid malignancy cannot be justified (7). As smaller malignant nodules can be detected on thyroid US, the survival rate and prognosis may improve regardless of the actual effect of the treatments, and even with an increasing prevalence of disease (54, 63). Thyroid cancer detected by the use of an early screening test may tend to progress less rapidly than clinically detected disease. There may be cases that would regress, remain stable or progress too slowly to become clinically apparent during the lifetime of the patient (63).

However, a screening test can be justified in high-risk groups such as patients with a history of familial thyroid carcinoma, a history of MEN or a history of childhood irradiation of the head and neck area.

Reply to this discussion