MILLIONS of people with thyroid disease are being given excessive doses of radiation that could increase their risk of contracting cancer. That’s the conclusion of the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI), which says many hospitals around the world are ignoring international recommendations to minimise patients’ exposure to radiation.
Up to 5 per cent of women and a much smaller proportion of men contract Graves disease, an immune system defect causing the thyroid gland to produce too much hormone. For 50 years the disease has been treated by destroying all or part of the gland with radioactive iodine-131.
But Helene Jönsson,…
