This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (29)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Occupational and Environmental Medicine  • Otolaryngology/ Head & Neck Surgery  • Endocrine Disease of Head & Neck  • Radiation Therapy  • Endocrine Diseases  • Thyroid/ Parathyroid Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Scott Davis, PhD; Kenneth J. Kopecky, PhD; Thomas E. Hamilton, MD, PhD; Lynn Onstad, ScM; and the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study Team

JAMA. 2004;292:2600-2613.

Context  Approximately 740 000 Ci (2.73 x 10¹⁶ Bq) of iodine 131 (¹³¹I) were released to the atmosphere from the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington State from 1944 through 1957. The risk of thyroid disease resulting from prolonged environmental ¹³¹I exposure is poorly understood.

Objective  The Hanford Thyroid Disease Study (HTDS) was conducted to determine if thyroid disease is increased among persons exposed as children to atmospheric releases of ¹³¹I from Hanford.

Design  Retrospective cohort study. Exposure could have occurred from December 1944 through 1957. Follow-up occurred until the time of the HTDS examination (December 1992–September 1997). Participants’ thyroid radiation doses from Hanford’s ¹³¹I releases were estimated from interview data regarding residence and dietary histories.

Setting  The cohort included a sample of all births from 1940 through 1946 to mothers with usual residence in 1 of 7 counties in eastern Washington State.

Participants  Of 5199 individuals identified, 4350 were located alive and 3440 were evaluable; ie, had sufficient data for dose estimation and received an HTDS evaluation for thyroid disease, including a thyroid ultrasound, physical examination, and fine needle biopsy if required to evaluate thyroid nodularity.

Main Outcome Measures  Thyroid cancer, benign thyroid nodules, total neoplasia, any thyroid nodules, autoimmune thyroiditis, and hypothyroidism.

Results  There was no evidence of a relationship between Hanford radiation dose and the cumulative incidence of any of the outcomes. These results remained unchanged after taking into account several factors that might confound the relationship between radiation dose and the outcomes of interest.

Conclusion  These results do not support the hypothesis that exposure during infancy and childhood to ¹³¹I at the dose levels (median, 97 mGy; mean, 174 mGy) and exposure circumstances experienced by our study participants increases the risk of the forms of thyroid disease evaluated in this study.

Author Affiliations: Programs in Epidemiology (Drs Davis and Hamilton and Ms Onstad) and Cancer Prevention (Dr Kopecky), Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Departments of Epidemiology (Dr Davis) and Biostatistics (Dr Kopecky), School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine (Dr Hamilton), University of Washington, Seattle.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Thyroid Status, Disability and Cognitive Function, and Survival in Old Age
, , , , , and
JAMA. ;292():2591-2599.
FULL TEXT  

A 64-Year-Old Woman With a Thyroid Nodule

JAMA. ;292():2632-2642.
FULL TEXT  

Thyroid Disease in the Oldest Old: The Exception to the Rule

JAMA. ;292():2651-2654.
FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Thyrotropin Levels in a Population with No Clinical, Autoantibody, or Ultrasonographic Evidence of Thyroid Disease: Implications for the Diagnosis of Subclinical Hypothyroidism
Hamilton et al.
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2008;93:1224-1230.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A Cohort Study of Thyroid Cancer and Other Thyroid Diseases after the Chornobyl Accident: Dose-Response Analysis of Thyroid Follicular Adenomas Detected during First Screening in Ukraine (1998-2000)
Zablotska et al.
Am J Epidemiol 2008;167:305-312.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

An Optimal Treatment for Pediatric Graves' Disease Is Radioiodine
Rivkees and Dinauer
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2007;92:797-800.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Autoimmune Thyroiditis and Exposure to Iodine 131 in the Ukrainian Cohort Study of Thyroid Cancer and Other Thyroid Diseases after the Chornobyl Accident: Results from the First Screening Cycle (1998-2000)
Tronko et al.
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2006;91:4344-4351.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Radiation exposure and thyroid cancer.
Hoffman et al.
JAMA 2006;296:513-513.
FULL TEXT  

Radiation Exposure and Thyroid Cancer--Reply
Boice
JAMA 2006;296:514-514.
FULL TEXT  

A Cohort Study of Thyroid Cancer and Other Thyroid Diseases After the Chornobyl Accident: Thyroid Cancer in Ukraine Detected During First Screening.
Tronko et al.
JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 2006;98:897-903.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RESPONSE: Re: Risk of Thyroid Cancer After Exposure to 131I in Childhood
Boice
JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 2006;98:642-642.
FULL TEXT  

Radiation Dose-Response Relationships for Thyroid Nodules and Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors 55-58 Years After Radiation Exposure
Imaizumi et al.
JAMA 2006;295:1011-1022.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Thyroid Disease 60 Years After Hiroshima and 20 Years After Chernobyl
Boice
JAMA 2006;295:1060-1062.
FULL TEXT  

Hyperparathyroidism in Persons Exposed to Iodine-131 from the Hanford Nuclear Site
Hamilton et al.
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2005;90:6545-6548.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Radiation-induced Thyroid Cancer--What's New?
Boice
JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 2005;97:703-705.
FULL TEXT  

Endocrinology & Metabolism News, January 2005
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2005;90:16a-16a.
FULL TEXT