Report: Infant Girls Exposed to Most-Contaminated Fukushima Area Face 70% Higher Risk Thyroid Cancer

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

14. On a tangent, but related...

When Chernobyl happened in 1986, I was still living in my hometown in north-central Italy. The radiation fallout went a bit everywhere, but it was especially concentrated (partly due to geography and partly due to weather) in and around Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy (of which Bologna is the seat).

There are plenty of studies online that show the correlation of exposure to the Chernobyl fallout and high levels of cesium and other isotopes in breast milk, etc.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my mom started having some problems with her thyroid in the late 1990s. By then, we were in North Carolina. After consulting various local specialists, she was referred to Duke Medical Center and finally diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which is a rather unusual diagnosis for an European woman who has lived most of her life in Europe.

Thankfully, this specialist - who is world renowned in thyroid issues - had done some research after Chernobyl at the University of Pisa where some studies were able to prove some correlation of Hashimoto's with exposure to the fallout from Chernobyl.

That study also indicated that high estrogen production increases vulnerability to autoimmune conditions such as Hashimoto's, which is why females who are exposed to radiation (Chernobyl or Fukushima or anything else) seem to have more autoimmune problems than males.