‘jellyfish babies’

Letters

No link between radiation and ‘jellyfish babies’

Dear Sir In “An American legacy” ( PIM September, 1996) there are repeated references to “heretofore unheard of conditions such as ‘jelly-fish babies’”.

Unfortunately, the author missed a good opportunity to enlighten the public on the subject of gestational trophoblastic dis eases (GTDs) like the hydatidiform mole (HM) which is certainly not “unheard of’ if you happen to be a medical doctor,

though perhaps not under its colloquial

name.

This omission may well be intentional, since mystery certainly adds to fear, espe cially if World Health Organisation and other statistics on the disease are exclud ed.

The most comprehensive report on the subject is WHO’s 83-page Technical Report No 692, but other reports are avail able in journals such as Obstetric

Gynecology and Epidemiologic Reviews.

Worldwide statistics show that the highest incidences of HM are in the coun

tries of Indonesia, Iran, Taiwan, Nigeria and Mexico, none of which have anything to do with nuclear weapons testing or nuclear energy, while the lowest rates are those of Europe and the Caucasian popu lation of North America, which includes countries such as France, which gets near ly all its electricity from nuclear power.

Typical HM rates range from one to 10 incidences per 1000 pregnancies, with the higher risk rates being associated with women over 35 at the time of delivery.

The risk for women aged over 50 is some 200 times greater than for those aged 20- 35.

Other risk factors identified with far less certainty include cosmetics (red lip stick) and chemicals used in textile, print ing and the chemical industries, as well as alcoholism, viral or parasitic infections, herbal medicines and long-term oral con traceptive use.

HMs have been known since long before the discovery of nuclear radiation.

Radiation exposure has never been linked to an increased risk of HM, not among Japanese A-bomb survivors, not in the Marshall Islands, and not in the Ukranian and Byelorussian areas contaminated by the Chernobyl explosion.

Fear mongering may win entertain ment and news media prizes but it won’t

win you any kudos in the world of medicine and public health education.

Jaro Franta

Quebec Canada