My blog often highlights ConMed drugs because they cause disease and kill. But what about other ConMed 'therapies'? Radiation therapy is increasing, for a variety of testing and treatments. Are they safe? I have recently come across this - from the New York Times, giving access to a variety of articles examining the issues that are arising from the increasing use of medical radiation, and the technologies that deliver it. It makes frightening reading.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/radiation_boom/index.html?ref=health
Topics include:
After stroke scans, patients face serious new health risks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/health/01radiation.html?_r=1&ref=radiation_boom
Radiation faces new cures, and new way to harm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/health/24radiation.html?ref=radiation_boom
As technology surges, radiation safeguards lag
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27radiation.html?ref=radiation_boom
To support these growing concerns, and to show that they are not new, this is an extract from Kevin Morris's book, called "It's only a disease; how I fought terminal cancer and won" which features the history of the treatment of cancer with radiotherapy.
"The story of radiotherapy's rise to prominence as a cancer treatment is
a fascinating one. James Douglas of the Phelps-Dodge copper mining
company, set up the National Radium Institute in 1913. At the same time,
he made a massive, one hundred thousand- dollar gift to Memorial
Hospital in the United States. As the hospital was in serious financial
difficulties, Douglas' gift was most welcome, but it came with several
strings attached. He insisted that the hospital only treat cancer
patients, that it routinely offer radium treatment, and he also
installed his friend as chief pathologist and later as medical director.
The Memorial went on to become one of the main cancer research and
treatment centres in the States and radiation treatment was on offer
there from the beginning. Douglas' shrewd moves placed the Memorial
Hospital in the position of being a distribution centre for the radium
produced by his mining interests.
In 1902, the first incidence of a human cancer brought about by
X-radiation was noted and in 1906 it was suggested that exposure to
radiation from radium could cause leukaemia. By 1911, 94 cases of
radiation induced cancer had been reported, more than half of them in
doctors or technicians. In 1911, 94 cases of cancer caused by radiation
had been noted. Despite these serious cautions, doctors appeared to be
swayed into using it by the profit motive. In 1914, one doctor told the
New York Times that,
"Something is created which kills many patients. I cannot tell, nobody
can tell, for four or five years just what the results will be. I simply
feel that I've shoved these patients over a little quicker." /The sting
in the tail came in the doctor's comment that '/I can double my money in
a year while charging 4 cents per milligram per hour.' New York Times,
January 27 1914.
What Kevin suggests here is that the concerns about radiation have been around for a long time - and that ConMed does not seem to learn from its many, regular mistakes that put patients at risk.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/radiation_boom/index.html?ref=health
Topics include:
After stroke scans, patients face serious new health risks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/health/01radiation.html?_r=1&ref=radiation_boom
Radiation faces new cures, and new way to harm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/health/24radiation.html?ref=radiation_boom
As technology surges, radiation safeguards lag
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27radiation.html?ref=radiation_boom
To support these growing concerns, and to show that they are not new, this is an extract from Kevin Morris's book, called "It's only a disease; how I fought terminal cancer and won" which features the history of the treatment of cancer with radiotherapy.
"The story of radiotherapy's rise to prominence as a cancer treatment is
a fascinating one. James Douglas of the Phelps-Dodge copper mining
company, set up the National Radium Institute in 1913. At the same time,
he made a massive, one hundred thousand- dollar gift to Memorial
Hospital in the United States. As the hospital was in serious financial
difficulties, Douglas' gift was most welcome, but it came with several
strings attached. He insisted that the hospital only treat cancer
patients, that it routinely offer radium treatment, and he also
installed his friend as chief pathologist and later as medical director.
The Memorial went on to become one of the main cancer research and
treatment centres in the States and radiation treatment was on offer
there from the beginning. Douglas' shrewd moves placed the Memorial
Hospital in the position of being a distribution centre for the radium
produced by his mining interests.
In 1902, the first incidence of a human cancer brought about by
X-radiation was noted and in 1906 it was suggested that exposure to
radiation from radium could cause leukaemia. By 1911, 94 cases of
radiation induced cancer had been reported, more than half of them in
doctors or technicians. In 1911, 94 cases of cancer caused by radiation
had been noted. Despite these serious cautions, doctors appeared to be
swayed into using it by the profit motive. In 1914, one doctor told the
New York Times that,
"Something is created which kills many patients. I cannot tell, nobody
can tell, for four or five years just what the results will be. I simply
feel that I've shoved these patients over a little quicker." /The sting
in the tail came in the doctor's comment that '/I can double my money in
a year while charging 4 cents per milligram per hour.' New York Times,
January 27 1914.
What Kevin suggests here is that the concerns about radiation have been around for a long time - and that ConMed does not seem to learn from its many, regular mistakes that put patients at risk.
