Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Thyroid Abnomalities in 0.7% of Fukushima Children, According to Prefectural Government

(UPDATE: See my latest post. Total 1143 children out of 3765 tested had lumps on the thyroid.)

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(Let's repeat the refrain: "It has nothing to do with radiation".)

From Jiji Tsushin (1/25/2012):

18歳以下0.7%、5ミリ超のしこり=放射線の影響「考えにくい」-福島県

0.7% of children under the age of 18 have developed lumps [on the thyroid] more than 5 millimeters in diamater: "Hard to believe" there is any effect of radiation, says Fukushima prefectural government

 福島県は25日、東京電力福島第1原発事故の発生時に18歳以下だった県内の子ども全員を対象とした甲状腺検査の先行調査の結果を初めて公表した。超音波検査を受けた3765人のうち、0.7%に当たる26人から5.1ミリ以上のしこりが見つかった。

On January 25, the Fukushima prefectural government announced for the first time the result of the early test of thyroid gland on the children who were in Fukushima Prefecture and were under the age of 18 at the time of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident. Of 3765 children who were tested with ultrasound, 26 children or 0.7% of the children tested were found with lumps that measure more than 5.1 millimeters in diameter.

 検査を担当した福島県立医科大は「良性のしこりで、以前から存在していた可能性が高く、放射線の影響は考えにくい」としているが、念のために超音波や採血などの追加検査を行う。

Fukushima Medical University, who conducted the test, says, "They are benign lumps. It is highly likely that these lump had existed before, and it is hard to believe there is any effect of radiation". However, just in case, the university will conduct additional ultrasound testing and blood testing.

 先行調査の対象は事故当時に浪江町と飯舘村、川俣町山木屋地区に住んでいた子ども。26人の大半は6歳以上で、がんの疑いがあるケースはなかったという。

The early test was done on children who lived in Namie-machi, Iitate-mura, and Yamakiya District of Kawamata-machi at the time of the accident. Most of the 26 children are over the age of 6, and according to the Fukushima prefectural government there was no case of suspected cancer.

Fukushima Medical University, as you recall, has Dr. Shunichi Yamashita as the vice president. He and his associates are responsible for telling the residents in Iitate-mura and other high radiation cities and towns in Fukushima that it was safe to be outside, to eat vegetables, to drink water, when the radioactive fallout was falling heavily in Fukushima in March and April.

Of course these lumps are benign. They have to be.

20 comments:

Apolline said...

OT, sorry : Naoto Kan in Davos, no more nuclear energy...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204624204577180231906156286.html

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Thank you Helios. So the global elites are happy inviting the criminal that played a vital role in exacerbating the nuclear accident, hiding and falsifying information and irradiating people. I suppose all "elites" are like that, more or less...

NucMed said...

Too early. It takes at least 2 years to develop.

Anonymous said...

It is NOT too early to test. While it may take a year or more for serious problems to develop, it is an encouraging sign that after 10 months there are such a small number of abnormalities.

Anonymous said...

If you believe Fukushima government, do it at your own risk.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@NucMed, what takes at least 2 years to develop? Cancer? or the lumps?

Yosaku said...

Of course the newspaper leaves out the single most important statistic: the rate of incidence in the general population. Is 0.7% higher than what you would see for kids elsewhere? Lower? The same?

As with so much of the other "journalism" on this very important issue, the reader is left without any actionable information.

Yosaku said...

Following up on my above post, the following link might be helpful: http://erc.endocrinology-journals.org/content/13/2/427.full

"Thyroid nodules are uncommon in children before puberty (1.5% or less). Any nodule discovered in such an age group should therefore be viewed with suspicion and the diagnostic approach should be more aggressive in children than in adults because they are more often malignant than in adults."

Although the newspaper article only referred to nodules over 5 mm in diameter, we seem to be in the same general ball park as background.

Anonymous said...

It seems indeed too early for diagnosing thyroid cancer taht is related to the Fukushima accident. Anyway, without a biopsy, nobody can tell whether it's a benign or malign tumor.

FYI, an increase in thyroid cancer after the Chernobyl accident was seen approx. 4 to 5 years later. I doubt that we'll see a different pattern in Fukushima.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10626541

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9360507

Anyway, protecting children from potentially contaminated food is a matter of course, especially in the first weeks and months after the accident. Iodine-131 shouldn't be a big issue at the moment as the half time is rather short and the risk of exposure was the highest in the weeks after the accident. The incapable Japanese government takes full responsibility for lying to their citizens and not disclosing vital information. Shame on on you. Inexcusable and never to be forgiven.

Anonymous said...

When did the number of children under age 18 in Fukushima become 3765 ? Is this just the first group of children to be tested ?

Smiling lumps are benign
Baseless rumor lumps are malignant

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Looking for any press release from Fukushima Prefecture. So far no luck. But Dr. Damashita Yamashita has already declared all the lumps are benign, without even doing the blood test or biopsy.

As to whether it is "too soon" for any health effect to appear after the accident, I'd keep an open mind instead of thinking "it should or should not".

I suppose Mr. Shinzo Kimura would say the lumps are most likely from juvenile stress that triggered auto-immune disease.

@Anon at 5:13PM, yes it is the first of the first group. They hope to finish testing the first group by March 2014.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

It turns out over 30% of children tested had lumps on the thyroid of various sizes. See my latest post, and let me know what you think now.

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/01/1117-children-over-30-of-3739-tested.html

Majia's Blog said...

Anonymous said at 5:06
"Iodine-131 shouldn't be a big issue at the moment as the half time is rather short and the risk of exposure was the highest in the weeks after the accident...."

Fukushima has been active and more radiation is being released than officially recognized

Fukushima Diary has posted some municipal readings

Iodine-131 measured from snow in Hachioji Tokyo Source: Fukushima Diary Date: January 20th, 2012
It snowed on 1/20/2012 around in Tokyo.
They measured Iodine-131 from the snow in Hachioji Tokyo.
Cesium-134 @ 14.9 Bq/kg Cesium-137 @ 15.3 Bq/kg Iodine-131 @ 20.0 Bq/kg
Measurement of Iodine 131 suggest the possibility of recriticality of Fukushima…

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@Majia, that Hachioji snow story is totally false, and it's been proven false.

There was no cesium, there was no iodine. The person who measured the snow mistook Bi-214 and Pb-214 peaks as iodine and cesium.

Anonymous said...

People are still looking at it wrong. It's bullshit to justify safety by looking at "supposed number of victims", no matter how reliable or unreliable the information.

The fact is, excess radiation is being scattered everywhere, and it wasn't before. It's not a matter of IF people get sick from it, it's only a matter of WHEN. Whether it's safe or not, the obvious solution is to avoid or stop the excess radiation... and they are failing to do this.

Also, they shouldn't wait until there's an accident and then test victims to say it's safe. The accidents shouldn't happen in the first place.

Yosaku said...

arevamirpal::laprimavera,

Thanks for the new info--very helpful. What we still don't have, though, is a background number for "lumps", and without that, try as we might, we simply can't make causation judgments about the data. After doing some additional research, it appears that there are a variety of things that could cause "lumps" that wouldn't be considered "nodules" whether due to size or composition. (I really had no idea what kind of rabbit hole this was!)

Anyway, I did find some interesting links which you might find helpful:

Two studies of thyroid nodules from Chernobyl:
-General population
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1629989
-Clean-up Workers
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9008215

US Thyroid Association Guidelines:
http://www.thyca.org/DTCguidelines.pdf

And, on a more general note, I wish it didn't fall to us non-experts to figure out what the background level is. Those who issued this report (and the many other reports out there) need to justify their conclusions, and they often (almost always?) fail to do so. I think this goes back to the whole "sensei" mentality and the fact that school kids in Japan (and therefore the population as a whole) aren't taught to question what they are told, nor are they taught how to present and build convincing arguments. But I digress...

Yosaku said...

arevamirpal::laprimavera,

Just saw your most recent update re: cysts. That seems to fit with what I was reading.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I didn't find any reference to background in the so-called expert panel's report. It looks like it will fall on non-experts to figure that out, by muddling through the information...

Good thing is, many non-experts on twitter are asking the question: What's the background?

One radiology expert says probably no one knows, as they do not do ultrasound testing of thyroids of healthy kids.

Merck Manual has a good summary of thyroid testing and what should be done if abnormalities are found.

Anonymous said...

Its the begining of a epedemic because of the radiation, and now the number starts to popp up.
And all this wasn not a tema 3 months ago, and now we have it, and stil some are living in denile.

Well, its going to be worse, belive me, mutch worse. Wait aother 3 months and then we talk about Statistics and coinsidents(aka: drivel).

Yosaku said...

arevamirpal::laprimavera,

I agree.

As an aside, I don't know if you ever get the chance to come through Tokyo, but I would really appreciate the chance to meet you sometime. I think you are doing an incredible job (and I'm sure there are many others who think the same).

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