Radiation

In rejecting PSA screening for prostate cancer, an influential federal panel has chipped a cornerstone of preventive medicine, declaring that it's not always best to catch cancer as early as possible. "At best, PSA screening may help only 1 man in 1,000 avoid death from prostate cancer," the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday. "Most prostate cancers found by PSA screening are slow growing, not life threatening, and will not cause a man any harm during his lifetime.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited Abington Memorial Hospital for 10 "significant" violations of radiation-protection rules in its radiation- therapy and nuclear-medicine departments. According to hospital officials, all violations were corrected on Dec. 21, the day after the NRC conducted a surprise inspection. The hospital, on Old York Road in eastern Montgomery County's Abington Township, has 30 days from the NRC's March 24 ruling to pay a proposed $2,500 fine or begin a lengthy appeal process.

TOKYO - Japan's nuclear safety officials reprimanded the operator of Japan's tsunami-damaged power plant Friday and demanded an investigation of how two workers were exposed to radiation more than twice the government-set limit. The government also ordered the utility to reduce workers' risks of heat-related illnesses as concerns grow about the health risks faced by the people toiling to get the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control. The two men with high radiation exposure worked at a central control room for two reactors when the tsunami struck March 11 and the days that followed.

Just as America's greatest storehouse of data on the health risks of radiation is about to be opened, finally allowing scientists to determine how little radiation causes adverse health effects, nuclear regulators and the industry they oversee are about to ensure that no American will ever know precisely how much radiation he or she is exposed to. They plan to remove one-third of the volume of low-level radioactive waste generated in this country...

A four-year legal battle over the release of secret occupational health records of workers at the nation's nuclear weapons plants ended yesterday, when Philadelphia lawyers received a computer tape containing the occupational-health records of 44,000 workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington. "We've got it," said Daniel Berger, an attorney for the Three Mile Island Public Health Fund. "We received the first installment of the records we've been seeking for a long time.

While most businesses believe big is better, a new Chester County health- care provider says the best medicine may come in small packages. The Exton Cancer Center, which opened three weeks ago in a medical suite at the Oaklands Corporate Center on Route 30, hopes to provide a full range of radiation and chemotherapy for its diagnosed cancer patients more conveniently and possibly at less cost than its hospital-based counterparts, even though it...

As I write, a 2-year-old girl from Kiev is undergoing surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The child was born five days after the Chernobyl accident, and it is widely believed that the tumor in her brain was caused by the release of radiation from the nuclear reactor. It has been reported that way on television, usually with the sheepish disclaimer that "physicians are not sure of the cause. " Radiation is quickly becoming the new national nightmare. In a curious way it has come to resemble the malignant spirits of the netherworld that once haunted the Middle Ages.

Charlton Heston says he is on the road to recovery after weeks of radiation to battle prostate cancer. "It's not totally gone, but it's on the path to it," the Academy Award-winning actor said Friday. Heston, 75, finished about seven weeks of radiation last month. The cancer was found during an annual checkup in June. Doctors agreed to let the actor, who is also president of the National Rifle Association, postpone radiation until after November's elections so he could campaign for Republican candidates and continue shooting the comedy Town and Country, his 75th movie.

In May of 1928, Marie Curie, the famous discoverer of radium, received a disturbing letter from an American journalist. After decades of handling radioactive materials without any protection, Madame Curie could not read the letter without assistance because she suffered from radiation-induced cataracts. The journalist's letter said that several young women in Essex, N.J., were dying from destruction of their jaw tissues after licking radium paint brushes in a factory that made luminescent watch dials.

Gloucester City residents with questions about recent state radiation surveys can meet with officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) tonight. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Gloucester Heights Fire Hall, 230 Nicholson Rd. The testing identified gamma radiation from radioactive wastes left by the Welsbach Co. in Gloucester City and the General Gas Mantle Co. in Camden. These industries used thorium, a radioactive material, in manufacturing mantles for lamps and lanterns 50 or more years ago. Testing of three sites in the city began in January.

LOS ANGELES - Back when single-celled organisms ruled Earth, a gigantic black hole lurking quietly at the center of a distant galaxy dismantled and devoured a star. This month, astronomers reported that they watched the whole thing unfold over a period of 15 months starting in 2010, the first time such an event had been witnessed in great detail from start to finish. "The star got so close that it was ripped apart by the gravitational force of the black hole," said Johns Hopkins astronomer Suvi Gezari, lead author of a paper about the observations that was published online by the journal Nature.

Only minutes into the Elias Quartet's Philadelphia debut concert Tuesday at the Kimmel Center, the 14-year-old British-based group was radiating its own distinctive charisma - without the slightest hint of musical force. Few quartets at any stage of their evolution have this much personality - as manifested by an unusually warm blend, emotional individuality in the incidental solos (especially violist Martin Saving), and a manner of expression that comes so much from the inside out that there's no need for external signposts such as sharp attacks and surface histrionics.

MOSCOW - The head of Russia's space agency said Tuesday that cosmic radiation was the most likely cause of the failure of a Mars moon probe that crashed to Earth last month, and suggested that a low-quality imported component may have been vulnerable to the radiation. Vladimir Popovkin also said a manned launch to the International Space Station was being postponed from March 30 because of faults found in the Soyuz capsule. The statements underline the trouble that has afflicted the country's vaunted space program in recent months, including the August crash of a supply ship for the space station and the December crash of a communications satellite.

SAN ANTONIO - New research casts doubt on a popular treatment for breast cancer: a week of radiation to part of the breast instead of longer treatment to all of it. Women who were given partial radiation were twice as likely to need their breasts removed later because the cancer came back, doctors found. The treatment uses radioactive pellets briefly placed in the breast instead of radiation beamed from a machine. At least 13 percent of older patients in the United States get this now, and it is popular with working women.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - A sealed device used to check whether radiation detectors are working properly at Brookhaven National Laboratory leaked a small amount of radiation last month, lab authorities said. There was no threat to public health or the environment, but the lab has halted some operations while it investigates. The radiation was later found on two employees, in a parking lot and a private vehicle, and in one of the facility's buildings, the lab said. The lab is reviewing policies, procedures, and training programs.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan lifted some evacuation advisories around the tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Friday to reassure tens of thousands of residents who fled the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl that it is safe to return home. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) no-go zone remains in place around the plant, which was badly damaged by the March 11 tsunami that left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing across Japan's northeast coast. But officials said the advisories for five municipalities 12-19 miles (20-30 kilometers)

TOKYO - Up and down Japan's devastated northeast coast, survivors prayed and communities came together Sunday to mark six months since the massive earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, a date that changed everything for them and their country. As the world commemorated the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, Japanese parents hung colorful paper cranes for their lost children, and monks chanted in front of smashed buildings. Thousands marched in the streets to demand the country abandon nuclear power because of damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

Question: I never had a problem swallowing pills until I was treated with radiation for esophageal cancer. Now, any pills I take seem to get trapped in the upper part of my throat. When it happens, water hardly helps, but swallowing a piece of bread seems to dislodge the pills. Is this from a Schatzki's ring? Would stretching my esophagus help? Answer: Radiation to the esophagus and neck can cause irritation and scarring to the tissues, as well as damage to salivary glands, which causes dry mouth.

Iraq sentences 3 to death in siege BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court sentenced three men to death Tuesday for masterminding a church siege last year that killed 68 people in one of the most horrific attacks on the nation's Christian minority. Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said the three men were found guilty of planning and preparing the Oct. 31 attack, in which al-Qaeda in Iraq suicide bombers held worshipers hostage at Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation cathedral for hours before detonating explosive belts.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Nearly two weeks after announcing he has cancer, President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday described a baseball-size tumor that was removed in surgery and a prognosis that includes chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Chavez provided his most extensive account to date of his illness, suggesting that difficult months may lie ahead as he anticipates physically taxing treatments while also remaining in the presidency. It was the first time he has referred to expecting chemotherapy or radiation treatment after the June 20 surgery in Cuba.