CDC kills fallout study

[Hanging On]

Copyright 2005 Deseret Morning News

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News

The federal government, after already spending $8 million on the project, has yanked funding for a study of possible connections between thyroid health effects and the radioactive fallout that hit southern Utah and nearby areas of Nevada decades ago.

The study has rechecked about 1,300 of 4,000 former students who lived in southwestern Utah and eastern Nevada, plus a control group of Arizona residents.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta, ended the program.

"CDC does not have the financial resources available to continue the project," agency spokesman John Florence told the Deseret Morning News. "It's a funding issue."

Notification of the study's halt came in a March 21 letter from Michael A. McGeehin, director of the CDC Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, to Dr. Joseph L. Lyon, a University of Utah researcher who has been heading the investigation.

Lyon said he is loath to use the word cover-up, but it seems the federal government does not want to know about health effects of fallout on American citizens. Still, "That's the only interpretation I can place on it," he said.

Asked how often the CDC pulls funding in the middle of a major study, Lyon said, "I've never known it to happen before. I haven't done a survey there, but it's the first time I've heard" about such a thing happening......

Full story can be found at:
<http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600122011,00.html>

I hope this is not a dupe. I did not see elsewhere.

[tinanator]

1. Im shocked

as if

[ecoalex]

2. bus*whacked

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. Gee....what a surprise. Get close to the truth and pull the plug.

[Hoping4Change]

4. Can someone remind me how Utah and Nevada voted?

<<sarcasm off>> How am I not surprised? I wonder how it will be reported in those states.

Thanks for posting this story Hanging On and welcome to DU. It people like you that make DU such a great resource. Glad you're here. :hi:

[Hanging On]

6. Thanks!!

SO glad to be here!

[Hoping4Change]

9. If you don't mind me asking. How did you find this little

enclave of sanity?

[Hanging On]

10. Kind of an "election progression" ...

I started out looking at Zogby.com every day (obsessed with polls); then ended up, from there, on DailyKos. From there, linked to other sites including DU, to which I am now addicted!

[Hoping4Change]

11. Yep it's an addiction all right and one's that hard to break. nt

[mom cat]

12. Welcome to DU Anon. We don't have many recoveries.

:hi:

[Fovea]

5. Dr. Samuel Shem, author of 'The House of God'

a novel about medical internship described it thusly--

"If you don't want to find a fever, don't take a temperature."

That is exactly what just happened at the CDC.
It is unacceptable because of the critically important
role the CDC plays in the nation's health.

These jerks need to need to be signed up for the Firesign Theatre game show, 'Beat the Reaper,' where each week a lucky contestant gets to diagnose their own disease (administered by the Albanian minister of health) just in time for the antidote.

[EFerrari]

7. (Still an improvement on "Catch it, You KEEP it! ) n/t

[Hanging On]

8. Please just know....

that the "rank and file" (doctors, scientists, and many other dedicated professionals) of the CDC are not involved in, or in agreement with, these kinds of decisions. When an administration is place that cares about the work these people are committed to, then the CDC will be able to fulfill its mission. Until then, it is another victim of the current administration's total lack of concern for the welfare of the American people.

[tavalon]

15. Trust me

It isn't the first time they've done this. It may well be that they really did lose their funding but having seen up close and personal how much the CDC will actively do to cover up something, I don't doubt that their dirty fingers are in this pie too.

BTW, I'm a nurse and I used to think that the CDC was an amazing place of scientific inquiry. It shocked the hell out of me when I found out what I found out. I no longer consider them anything but another political group, out to protect it's ass and not much else.

[Rose Siding]

13. They needed the money to renovate the WH press room

Bush said it was too stuffy for him.

[MelissaB]

14. This pisses me off!

I'm in north Alabama. Southern Tennessee has a belt that has a high level of fallout. (This is about 7 miles from me.) My mother died of brain cancer (GBM) about a year and a half ago, and I discovered that there is a lot of thyroid and brain cancer in this area. A lady with a husband dying in the hospital room next to my mother brought me an article from USA Today which had a graphic that showed where a lot of the fallout settled. The article also stated that the government had been delaying releasing the study. Wonder why? They wouldn't want to be responsible would they? BASTARDS!

[Shallah Kali]

16. Don't want us to know that nuclear bombs can bite us in the behind

Even on the other side of the world some radiation will still reach us. They don't want us thinking about this when the * Administration lobbys for funding new types of nuclear bombs.

[UL_Approved]

17. Now, this is a small theory that I've considered for several years

I know several people who use tobacco products now, and have for decades. They have never had cancer, and they live in an area that has received little radiation since the 1950's.

What if tobacco products really aren't the main source of cancer, but rather the radiation absorbed by the tobacco is what causes it?

http://medicolegal.tripod.com/toxicchemicals.htm

This is just a theory, and you need to search for "nuclear" in this document from the link above. But still, the radiation explains a great deal about cancer distribution, and qualifies cancer rates amongst non-smokers.

As a whole, we are just livestock to the power holders in this nation, and a democracy is a long-forgotten reality so long as we let them go unchecked.

[Iterate]

18. It doesn't only effect two states

Who's at risk for thyroid cancer? Everyone.

The risk factors shown with a statistical link, in rough order:

Exposure to radiation
Family history
Women
Over 40
White, Asian
Not enough iodine in the diet, or perhaps too much iodine in the diet. Want fries with your coke?

Incidents are increasing most rapidly in agricultural/dairy states in the Midwest and northeast. Increased overall by over 20% in the last 5 years.

Anyone in DU fit that risk profile? Cure rates for the most common types are quite high, if you have access to $70,000 and can take six months off work.

[truthisfreedom]

19. private funding is the answer. someone contact moveon or another group

to initiate the needed funding. we can embarrass this government to death. they constantly draw attention to themselves with this bullshit... let's catch them at it, and expose every little thing they try to cover up.