The Public - Thyroid Radiation Treatment Collateral Damage Part 1

The hotel linens you slept on may have been contaminated with radiation.  The person who sat next to you on your last bus ride may have been so radioactive that they set off alarms.  The person in the next table at the restaurant you ate at last may have been emitting and contaminating the area with radiation.

How do I know?

I was one of them who may have contaminated you.

Autoimmune Disease is the #2 reason for illness in our country.  Autoimmune Thyroid Disease is one of the most common autoimmune diseases in today's world.  Hashimoto's Thyroiditis causes low thyroid levels and is more common than Graves' Disease which causes high thyroid levels.  Thyroid cancer is also a common type of cancer.  What do these three things have in common?

Treatment with Radioactive I-131.

I-131 is radioactive iodine.  In the normal body, iodine is used mainly by the thyroid where it is converted into thyroid hormones which control the metabolism of each and every single cell in your body.  Patients are led to a small lead protected room, where a tech wearing protective gear holds a small lead box containing the I-131.  The patient swallows a small capsule(s).  The iodine races to the bloodstream where it spends time at each and every one of your organs and tissues before eventually being *sucked up* by the thyroid.  While in the body, the I-131 irradiates everything it comes near.  When it settles in the thyroid it does most of its damage by concentrating there and irradiating the gland and killing it.  This is called I-131 thyroid ablation. 

The entire process takes months.  

The treatment is completely invisible.  It is said to be "harmless".  It is said to "cure" thyroid dysfunction problems like Graves' and (rarely) Hashi's, as well as thyroid cancer.  It doesn't actually even "cure" thyroid dysfunction, but that's for another post.

This article finally shines light on the dangers of this treatment to the public. The thyroid community has talked semi-openly about this for years.  Finally, someone is listening...

In the veterinary world, animals who undergo I-131 treatment are quarantined for a month or more to be sure they will not contaminate the public or their surroundings.  Great care is taken to assure that no one is harmed while the animals are dangerously radioactive.

Not so in the human world. 

In our world, patients are given the I-131 and immediately go on about their daily business.  Although patients may be warned not to vomit, and to *take care* while using the bathroom, no one oversees what patients actually DO during the time they are emitting dangerous radioactivity.

The article cites a couple of recorded scenarios:

*  One notable patient rode the bus the day of treatment, setting off radiation detectors in New York's Lincoln Tunnel.

*  A survey was taken of I-131 cancer patients that noted: 7% went to hotels with their doctor's knowledge.  The article goes on to tell the story of workers from a nuclear plant who stayed at a hotel after a patient's room laundry was done by staff, spreading the contamination.  They were so contaminated after sleeping in the sheets etc that they set off alarms at their nuclear facility.  (If it were not for the fact these people worked in a facility equipped with radiation detection devices, no one would ever have known.)

*  25% were never told how to keep from exposing pregnant women and children from their radiation.  The survey noted 56 cases where bathrooms or bedrooms were shared by pregnant women or children.  Neither this nor the dangers of "other close contact" was explained to them.

* Maryland and Massachusetts are two states that have stated problems with radiation contaminated trash setting off alarms resulting in exposure to workers when they were forced to unload the trucks to search for the source.

Beyond the article, I have been told personal stories of patients who were given notes to board airplanes and other public transportation so patients could return home, begging the question - what about the rest of the passengers who spend hours with these patients in close quarters, perhaps being unwittingly contaminated by mere proximity, or body fluids such as sweat or those spread by a cough or sneeze.  What about the people who will ride after the person has long gone home?

What about those patients who go to work the next day exposing everyone with whom they come into contact, who they may or may not even know?  What if one is in the earliest most susceptible period of pregnancy?  What about the baby in the grocery cart ahead of them in the line at the store?  What about the clothes they try on at the department store and don't buy?

Tomorrow: Part 2 - My Personal Story

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