Radiation

EntreMed Inc. said yesterday that it plans to move its anti-cancer drug Angiostatin into additional clinical trials later this year after it proved safe, both when used alone and when used in combination with radiation. The Rockville company presented final results yesterday from a human test of the drug in combination with radiation at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. The results showed that Angiostatin did not increase the toxic side effects of radiation -- safety results that were the major goal of the study.

What Dr. Sandeep Rao did not mention in his op-ed ( "Risk of radiation," April 25) is that American doctors order twice the radiation-intense imaging of the next industrialized nation per capita and that imaging causes 2 percent of all cancer. If we had tort limits like public health services, halving imaging would immediately prevent 1 percent of all cancer. Don't expect insurers to be thrilled about paying for a more expensive, radiation-free MRI in place of every CT. Adequate reimbursement of primary care would give physicians time to explain the risks and benefits of imaging to their patients.

There's more than a whiff of chicanery surrounding a controversial bill on financial self-dealing by physicians that is edging its way quickly toward passage in the General Assembly. The aroma emanating from this bill is hardly pleasant. Legislators, beware.On the surface, the measure seems a consumer-oriented, right-thinking kind of ethics bill. It would stop physicians from referring patients to diagnostic and therapeutic centers in which they hold financial interests. That's a sensible step.

LONDON -- An Italian KGB expert who warned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko that his life might be in danger the day he was poisoned has a "significant quantity" of radioactive polonium-210 in his body, authorities said yesterday. British health officials also said they had detected a small quantity in a close relative of Litvinenko's, though neither of the new victims has shown signs of illness. The revelations came as police zeroed in on traces of radiation found on British Airways jets that flew between Moscow and London, one of which may have carried suspects transporting the radioactive poison.

VIENNA, Austria - Nearly two decades after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster spread radioactive fallout across much of Europe, a United Nations study has concluded that the health effects have been far less extensive than feared. The researchers confirmed 56 deaths, nine children who died of thyroid cancer and 47 emergency workers who died of acute radiation poisoning or radiation-induced cancer. They projected that 3,940 more people will die of cancer, according to the report released yesterday.

Women who are exposed to radiation from video display terminals do not appear to have a higher risk of miscarriages, according to a long-awaited federal government study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.However, several independent work-safety advocates said that more research is needed to conclusively prove that VDT radiation is not hazardous.The seven-year study, done in eight Southeastern states, compared the pregnancies of 323 young telephone operators who worked with VDTs and 407 who worked in similar jobs without VDTs.

As part of its anti-terrorism effort, the federal government is considering a plan to install X-ray machines in airports - not just to screen carry-on bags, as it does already, but to scan outgoing passengers. The technology has been proven in prisons and among Customs and Border Protection agents who use it to search for drugs, illegal weapons and contraband. But the idea of using it on 700 million American air passengers a year is generating serious privacy concerns from civil libertarians - and safety questions among some scientists, who question whether the risks, however small, outweigh the potential benefit of catching people hiding plastic explosives or other dangerous devices.

Tom Reddin, 88, the innovative former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who introduced community policing and went on to be a television newscaster, politician and head of his own private security company, died Saturday at his Los Angeles home of complications from Parkinson's disease. He rose through the police ranks under conservative Chief William H. Parker, and is widely credited with modernizing the LAPD, introducing computerized dispatch systems, upgrading communication technology and improving training and pay. His short tenure as chief -- he served slightly more than two years -- was marked by his efforts to make police and the community partners in preventing crime, establishing the concept of community policing.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has notified the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore of four apparent violations its inspectors discovered, including inadequate security for radioactive materials in the nuclear medicine department.The NRC is scheduled to meet with hospital officials April 30 at the federal regulatory agency's regional offices near Philadelphia to discuss the apparent violations, which were cited in inspections Feb. 26 and 27 and March 13, NRC officials said yesterday.

PHILADELPHIA -- A short, violent outburst of X-ray radiation from a distant quasar observed by U.S. and Japanese astronomers may boost estimates of the number of galaxies that harbor massive black holes.The quasar -- located 2 billion light years from Earth -- erupted during a three-minute period in November 1989, producing energy equivalent to the sun's total radiation over a million years.Billed as the fastest and largest increase in a quasar's output ever detected, the discovery was announced yesterday at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Philadelphia.