Word: thyroids
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TWICE A YEAR, The Department of Energy (DOE) goes to Micronesia to take toll of the damage caused by the repeated explosion of nuclear weaponry in the Marshall Islands. Usually the examinations involve a checking of thyroid glands, Darlene Keju, a Marshallese says, but only those who were around during the explosion of a 1954 hydrogen bomb are examined. "They are only interested in studies using us as guinea pigs," Keju says, adding that the recent generations of Marshallese are used as a control group for the tests...
UNTIL RECENTLY, foreign exchange and investment with countries other than the U.S. was also prohibited. Most of the island economies are totally dependent on U.S. capital. Paradoxically, however, western-style modernization also poses threats to the native population; with thyroid problems and cancerous growths, the Marshallese and other islanders are affected by high blood pressure and diabetes and other illnesses previously rare to Micronese citizens...
This oversight is all the more inexcusable because the effects of nuclear weapons testing are still being felt by residents of Micronesia. Children carried to full term by Micronesians often go through life plagued with cancerous growths and serious thyroid problems. A common phenomenon on many of the islands is the birth of unhealthy children known as "jellyfish babies," which appear as blobs of flesh whose only indication of life is a spasmodic hopping motion that accompanies breathing...
...admitted to a hospital know enough to bring their own chopsticks, towels and soap and not to expect amenities. Example: a woman recently checked into a large, state-run hospital in Tokyo to have a thyroid tumor removed. She was able to get a semiprivate room. The sheets were changed only once a week and the bath and toilet were down the hall. Her sharpest recollection: "I hated to go to the bathroom. Scores of cockroaches were clustered there at night." Still, she said, "the care was excellent...
...small, poorly equipped clinic makes about $67,000 a year, while a lawyer earns $31,000 and a university professor $29,000. In addition, although their income is taxed, doctors make thousands more on the side from tips that are discreetly passed on by patients. After her operation, the thyroid patient delivered a box of candy with five 10,000 yen bills ($215) hidden at the bottom. Says she: "I was told that's what everyone does...