Fallout study corrects old estimates
Report seems to validate work of Utahns' dropped thyroid project
And the study, just published in a scientific journal, apparently validates the work of Utah researchers whose long-term thyroid study was shut down last year by the federal Centers for Disease Control.
The average dose is close to that calculated earlier for Utah's Washington County; Lincoln County, Nev.; and Graham County, Ariz. However, the report adds, "there was about a twofold increase in the mean of individual doses for those living outside of those areas."
Also, in calculating the exposure of individuals, some doses were changed.
Dr. Joseph L. Lyon of the University of Utah saw his project ended after the expenditure of $8 million in federal funds. The CDC cited "lack of scientifically defensible dosimetry, power and treatment of uncertainty."
However, the new report, of which Lyon is one of the authors, cites rigorous scientific analysis, and it corrects dosimetry mistakes in earlier efforts.
"The people in the radiation community think our methods are very good and we've done a very good job," he said. The Centers for Disease Control was negative on the study, "but they haven't published papers in the radiation literature."
In another development, the new report — "2004 Update of Dosimetry for the Utah Thyroid Cohort Study," published this month by the journal Radiation Research — underlines a conclusion once thought controversial, that radiation can cause the inflammation thyroiditis.
That thyroid cancer has a connection to radiation exposure is no longer doubted by most researchers. But the claim that exposure causes thyroiditis, a noncancerous inflammation, has been the subject of debate since it was first made in the early 1960s.
Radiation Research is a scientific journal published by the Radiation Research Society, which is managed from Lawrence, Kan. The editorial office is in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the journal is peer-reviewed, said its managing editor, Martha Edington.
After a report was published about an excess of leukemia deaths among children exposed to fallout in southwestern Utah, the National Cancer Institute funded a second phase of a thyroid study for Utah. Altogether, 3,122 people were located, among 4,180 examined in the 1980s.
Part of that study involved dose estimates. However, the latest report says, the dose estimates at that time are known to be faulty. The new report's major purpose is to correct the doses.
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