Page 60 - Spring2012

Soy Alert!

wISe thyRoId
By Kaayla t. daniel, Phd, and Sylvia onusic, Phd

Cristina Fernandez, the President of Argen- sixteen nuclear power reactors within a ninety-
tina, had her thyroid removed in January of this mile radius in this area…[is] likely a cause of
year only to find out the gland wasn’t cancerous rising incidence rates.” Pennsylvania has the
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after all. Although her supporters whooped with highest rate of thyroid cancer in the U.S.
joy at this news, doctors can’t put her thyroid In 2010 the Associated Press revealed that
back, and Fernandez will be on thyroid meds 75 percent of U.S. nuclear power plants leak
for life. Were her doctors incompetent or did radioactive materials into our air and water.
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they act appropriately? As that debate continues And many of the one hundred four commercial
to rage over the internet, the Fernandez case has nuclear power plants and thirty-four nuclear
also led to widespread discussion of why thyroid research stations now operating in the U.S. sit
cancer incidence, especially among women, has in seismically active locations, including at least
dramatically increased over the last thirty years. four near the “high risk” San Francisco Bay area
and three within the San Francisco Bay area
AN EPIDEMIC OF THYROID CANCER itself. As might be expected, there is a high
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According to the National Cancer Institute, incidence of thyroid cancer in the San Francisco
the incidence of thyroid cancer has nearly dou- Bay area.
bled since the early 1970s. Thyroid cancer now
affects about eleven people per hundred thousand FRACKING
in the United States. In January 2008, there were Radiation in ground water linked to hydrau-
458,403 Americans alive with a history of thyroid lic fracturing—or fracking—the process used to
cancer of which 100,952 were men and 357,451 extract oil or natural gas deep in the earth—has
women. In 2011, 56,460 new cases of thyroid also been linked to increasing rates of thyroid
cancer were diagnosed and 1,740 people died of cancer. Fracking has also led to a 2,400 percent
the disease. 2,3 increase in earthquakes compared to the number
Doctors do not know why the numbers of quakes that occurred in the years before frack-
of thyroid cancer cases are increasing though ing started in the U.S. Geologist Tracy Bank,
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some blame increased overweight and obesity, speaking at the American Geological Society
radiation exposure, and diets low in fruits and meeting in Denver last November, reported that
vegetables. fracking releases rock-bound uranium, posing a
why has the further radiation risk to our groundwater.
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incidence RADIATION
Certainly exposure to radiation is a known HORMONE HAVOC
of thyroid risk factor for thyroid cancer. In 2009 epide- Hormonal factors may also play a significant
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cancer, miologist Joseph Mangano, PhD, took data on role, according to the National Cancer Institute.
especially thyroid cancer incidence from the Centers for Although NCI arrived at this conclusion due to
among women, Disease Control for the years 2001 to 2005, the preponderance of thyroid cancer cases in
compared it with the proximity of nuclear power women under age forty-five, human estrogens
dramatically stations, and found that the counties with the should be regarded as just one piece of the

increased over highest thyroid cancer incidence were located hormonal picture. Xenoestrogens—estrogenic
the last thirty close together in eastern Pennsylvania, New substances found in the diet and the environ-
Jersey, and southern New York. He concluded, ment—also play a role. Commonly found in
years? “Exposure to radioactive iodine emissions from plastics, pesticides, cosmetics, personal care

60 Wise Traditions SPRING 2012 SPRING 2012 Wise Traditions

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