Pilots, Crew Have Double the Rate of Melanoma

As in the mythical story of Icarus, human beings in the modern world who fly too close to the sun have a price to pay, new research suggests.

Airline pilots and cabin crews have twice the incidence of melanoma as the general population, according to the largest meta-analysis to date on the subject.

The standardized incidence ratio of melanoma for any flight-based occupation was 2.21 (P < .001).

Furthermore, melanoma was more deadly in these professionals, who had a disease-related mortality rate 42% greater than that of more regularly earthbound beings.

Specifically, the standardized mortality ratio for any flight-based occupation was 1.42 (P = .02).

"Further research on the mechanisms [of harm] and optimal occupational protection is needed," conclude the researchers, led by Martina Sanlorenzo, MD, a research fellow in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco.

They suspect that the increase in melanoma risk seen in airline pilots and cabin crews comes from exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, which becomes more intense the higher a plane flies. "At 9000 meters [30,000 feet], where most commercial aircraft fly, the UV level is approximately twice that of the ground," the researchers report.

Remarkably, UV light exposure is "not a well-recognized occupational risk factor" for flight crews, they note. In contrast, ionizing radiation is a well-known risk, and levels in airline crews are regularly monitored.

This study provides no details on the clinical aspects of the melanomas.

"It would be interesting to see the anatomic distribution of skin cancers in the crew, because only hands and face should be exposed to UV passing through the windows," said Steven Wang, MD, director of dermatologic surgery and dermatology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, who was not involved in the study.

Frequent flier passengers are probably not at an increased risk, he said in an email to Medscape Medical News. But for the worried, pulling down the window shade and sitting in an aisle seat are protective strategies, added Dr. Wang, who is the author ofBeating Melanoma: A 5-Step Survival Guide.

The meta-analysis examined 19 studies (15 with data on pilots; 4 with data on cabin crews). Data from the studies, which involved more than 266,000 participants, were collected from 1943 to 2008 in more than 11 countries.

The researchers conducted separate analyses for pilots and for cabin crews (which include flight attendants).

They found that pilots were at greater risk for melanoma than the cabin crew.

In fact, pilots and crews would have more than double the annual number of new melanomas per year, which is 21.3 per 100,000 individuals in the general population.

Pilots as a group were also at greater risk for mortality, and had a higher mortality ratio than cabin crews (1.83 vs 0.90).

UVA Radiation and Glass Might Be the Problems

The researchers discuss the technicalities of the types of UV radiation and windshields.

They cite measurements of UV radiation that passes through the windshields of a variety of aircraft — large (e.g., Boeing737 and Airbus A320) and small (e.g., Cessna 182) — from a 2007 report by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The transmission of UVB is less than 1% for both plastic and glass windshields.

However, UVA is a different story, especially in airplanes with glass windows. "While plastic materials blocked almost all UVA radiation, 54% of it came through glass," Dr. Sanlorenzo and colleagues report.

Fukushima disaster contaminated ocean with 50 million times normal radiation, leaks still ongoing

Things are suddenly heating up again with Fukushima. As reported yesterday, the southern wall of Fukushima reactor #4 apparently collapsed over the past few days, calling into question the structural integrity of the remainder of the containment building.

The mainstream media has said absolutely nothing about this development, continuing its pattern of downplaying news involving Fukushima, radiation or the flawed structure of nuclear power plants. This is hardly surprising, given that many of the largest media outlets (such as NBC and MSNBC) are owned by corporations such as General Electric, the designer of many of the world's nuclear power plants.

Photos of the failed structure have emerged on Enenews.com, where a report explains that a once-intact wall is now essentially "missing" and that further degradation of the structure could lead to mass evacuations in Japan. As this report is still not confirmed by other sources, we continue to take this with a sense of caution here at NaturalNews. We will continue to monitor the situation and report any relevant developments.

50 million times higher radiation levels
What has hit the mainstream media, however, is a report entitled Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants on Marine Radioactivity, authored by Ken Buesseler, Michio Aoyama, and Masao Fukasawa.

This report, published in Environmental Science & Technology, reveals that levels of radioactive cesium reached 50 million times normal levels in the ocean water off the coast of the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility. Even more concerning, the abstract of this paper concludes, "...the concentrations through the end of July remain higher than expected implying continued releases from the reactors or other contaminated sources, such as groundwater or coastal sediments."

This, of course, contradicts mainstream media reports which for the most part stated that the radiation was "contained" and was not leaking directly into the environment. Only the alternative press has covered the real story on Fukushima, which has now become the worst radiological accident in the history of human civilization.

This same study ultimately concludes that this level of radiation contamination of the ocean is essentially harmless, stating, "...dose calculations suggest minimal impact on marine biota or humans due to direct exposure in surrounding ocean waters, though considerations for biological uptake and consumption of seafood are discussed and further study is warranted." That's a conclusion to be viewed with skepticism and caution, of course, as it says on one hand that "it's no problem" and yet on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't eat the seafood because we really don't know what quantity and concentration of radioactive elements may be ingested and concentrated by seafood sources.


Radioactive strontium admittedly leaked into the ocean
Another important development now surfacing is that TEPCO has finally admitted that alarming quantities of radioactive strontium (which has roughly a 30-year half life) have leaked into the ocean -- and that the leaks are ongoing!

According to TEPCO, which has repeatedly and deliberately lied to the public in order to downplay any "bad news" about radiological leaks, "26 billion becquerels of radioactive materials" have leaked into the ocean due to the Fukushima accident.

"This suggests that the releases have not ended, so that is of concern," said Ken Buesseler from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "If the contaminants end up in the marine sediments / muds, then they will remain there for decades to come, and thus potentially be of concern for benthic biota and consumers of benthic fish/shell fish, i.e. any local filter feeders near the source waters at the coast."


The worst may be yet to come
What's clear from all this is that:

• The Fukushima facility remains highly unstable and could dramatically worsen, especially if another earthquake or tsunami strikes the area and causes further degradation of the structural integrity of containment buildings which still house nuclear fuel rods.

• The Fukushima catastrophe is, without question, the most massive radiological disaster ever recorded in human history.

• The mainstream media has consistently (intentionally?) downplayed the severity of the Fukushima disaster, perhaps to try to calm fears by denying the true extent of the problem.

• TEPCO routinely and habitually lied about the status of Fukushima during the meltdown and in the days and weeks following that meltdown.

• We therefore cannot rely upon official sources to accurately inform us of the actual status of the Fukushima facility. The risk of being misled by those official sources is very high.


If you want the truth, don't trust official sources
Under such circumstances, the wise thing to do is stay informed and get prepared in case the Fukushima situation suddenly worsens. Hopefully everyone in North America knows by now that another release of radiation from Fukushima could widely contaminate the West Coast of the United States with radioactive fallout.

Given that government agencies in both the United States and Japan have altered the definitions of allowable radiation exposure limits, it hardly seems reasonable to think that these government are erring on the side of caution. In fact, by all accounts these governments are proactively working to downplay the severity of any future radiological event by claiming that levels of contamination previously considered poisoning are now suddenly "within safe limits."

But within whose definition of safe limits? After all, the U.S. government also thinks it's perfectly safe for you to drink fluoride, microwave your body at TSA checkpoints, eat genetically modified organisms, get yourself repeatedly injected with chemical adjuvants in vaccines and drink aspartame.

Aw, c'mon. What's a little radiation on top of all that?



Source:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034395_Fukushima_cesium_radiation.html#ixzz1gPpafiDg

Probiotics help protect intestines from radiation damage

Cancer patients undergoing radiation treatments or individuals looking to protect themselves against general radiation damage can look to probiotics for help, according to a new study. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., have found that radiation therapy patients who take probiotics prior to getting blasted can gain intestinal radioprotective benefits.

For their study, published in the online journal Gut, Dr. William F. Stenson and his colleague Dr. Nicholas V. Costrini compared the effects of radiation on mice, some of which were given probiotics prior to and after exposure. They found that those who had received a probiotic mix that included Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) before exposure were protected against radioactive damage in their intestines.

Patients who receive radiation treatments for prostate, cervical, bladder, endometrial, and other forms of abdominal cancers often experience severe intestinal damage. Radiation, of course, knows no bounds, and will destroy both malignant and healthy cells, which can lead to serious health problems. But when probiotics are involved, the damage appears to be effectively reduced or prevented.

"If the epithelium breaks down as the result of radiation, the bacteria that normally reside in the intestine can be released, travel through the body and cause serious problems such as sepsis," said Stenson. "Our study suggests we should give the probiotic prior to the onset of symptoms, or even before the initiation of radiation because, at least in this scenario, the key function of the probiotic seems to be preventing damage, rather than facilitating repair."

Even better was the fact that the probiotic dose given to the mice was moderate, and yet it still provided significant protection. When translated to humans, supplementation with typical doses of probiotics, such as the amount commonly found in a typical serving of yogurt, appears to be enough to provide radioprotective benefits.

Beyond radiation treatments, individuals simply looking to protect themselves from other types of general radiation can also derive radioprotective benefits from probiotics. Probiotics can help to prevent gut damage caused by radiation still being emitted from Fukushima, for example.


Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/034211_probiotics_radiation_damage.html#ixzz1eP0gr3AB