Personal Protection of Health Care Workers and Patients from the Acute and
Chronic Effects of Radiation from Telemedicine
The health sciences
paradigm has been transforming from a foundation supporting techno-medicine to
a foundation supported by info-medicine (Ilatovskiy, Abagyan, & Kufareva, 2013). The current era of the Information Age or
Digital Age has been a catalyst accelerating the increased global applications
of telemedicine/telehealth (TMTH). With
the increased use of TMTH in human and veterinary medicine, health care workers
are increasingly exposed acutely and chronically to radiofrequency radiation
(RFR) from electromagnetic fields (EMF) (Maronpot, 2013). There are two major diametrically opposed
factions in the scientific community on RFR and DNA damage (Franzellitti et
al., 2010; Gherardini, Ciuti, Tognarelli, & Cinti, 2014; Sellman,
2009). However, the investigations of
Phillips, Singh and Lai (2009) indicate that exposure of laboratory animals in vivo and cell cultures in vitro to a variety of RFRs have
resulted in DNA damage. Other studies
demonstrated no or little DNA damage.
Phillips et al. (2009) documented an in-depth analysis and
interpretation of the data from the opposing factions. Ledford (2012) demonstrated bias and
deficient authenticity in peer-reviewed articles concluding that RFR is not
detrimental to the health of living organisms.Chronic Effects of Radiation from Telemedicine
There
is sufficient evidence warranting a health promotion initiative to protect
health care workers in human and veterinary medicine who are chronically and
acutely exposed to RFRs due to TMTH (Abu Khadra, Khalil, Abu Samak, &
Aljaberi, 2014; Budworth et al., 2012; Carlberg, & Hardell, 2012; Crocetti
et al., 2012; de Miguel-Bilbao et al., 2015).
Included in the group of health care workers are laboratory workers
involved in diagnostics. In our health
initiative, the Telehealth Initiative Promotion for Radiologic Health
Protection (TIPRP), there is a one world/one health approach (OWOH) focused on
health care workers of the following institutions: Animal Health Department of
the San Diego Zoo, the Animal Medical Center, Tuskegee University School of
Veterinary Medicine and the Animal Health Department of the Marine Biology
Laboratory, Woods Hole.
OWOH
applies the fundamental principles of the basic and clinical medical sciences
to the treatment and prevention of diseases in all animal species. OWOH also explores the interconnections
between the ecosystem health of the world and the health of the diverse animal
species in ecosystems (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2013).
Since
many hand-held and pocket-sized medical diagnostic e-health instruments have
cell phone interfaces, the effects of the uses of mobile phones on human
health will be one area of focus of the TIPRP.
Our initiative will also explore radio-frequency identification and its
health effects when used in e-health.
TIPRP
has the following objectives:
Ø Reduce
the exposure of health care workers in telehealth to RFR;
Ø Educate
health care workers in telehealth on health risks associated with RFR;
Ø Reduce
the health risks associated with RFR among health care workers in telehealth.
The major stake-holders are the manufacturers and
distributors of TMTH devices, health insurance agencies, the animal health
industry, and the U.S. government.
Collaborating institutions include Scripps Institute of Oceanography,
Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, MIT, Harvard University, Oakridge
National Laboratory, Morris Animal Foundation, the National Institutes of
Health, and Walt Disney’s Wild Kingdom.
Possible sources for funding include the Morris Animal Foundation, the
National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.
The TIPRP activity will be conducted in the following
sectors of human and veterinary health:
- TIPRP and Safe Use of Radio Frequency Identification in the Telemedicine and E-Health;
- TIPRP and the Effects of Use of Mobile Phones on Human Health;
- TIPRP for Animal Health Workers in Private Practice;
- TIPRP for Animal Health Workers in Zoo Animal Health and;
- TIPRP for Animal Patients
We want to ensure that our classmates in the DHSc program at ATSU can post their comments.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information you gave the risk of exposure with mobile phones. I was glad to read that you have recommendations to reduce exposure such as taking advantage of other technology, such as Bluetooth and texting. I think this makes it more likely for people to be receptive to the concept of this danger. I know many people (myself included) would find it difficult to stop cell phone use altogether.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Jodi
Hello Jodi,
DeleteYou are welcomed. We are most grateful to you for reaching out to our blog. Health care workers who do diagnostic imaging do wear protective gear though there is room for health promotion in this area. Some radiologists may hesitate to wear protective glasses. However, the eyes can be damaged by xrays. We may feel that we are safe because data from the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) claim with bits of science that RFR-EMI is not harmful. We must be careful of claims made by technocratic institutions such as the NIH. There are many instances in which science of technocratic organizations are influenced by corporations, including the cell phone industry. We all need to read carefully the font 8 health precautions on the inserts of purchased cell phones.
Hello Sara,
ReplyDeleteI have also answered your interesting question.
Hello again Sara,
ReplyDeleteThere is a personal note from my research diary that I must add to my response to your question on RFIDs. While conducting research at Tulane University in the 1990’s in William Hartley’s laboratory, I developed an insightful hypothesis. We had developed a bioassay for detecting low dose, sub-lethal water borne carcinogens using the life-cycle stages of the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes). I proposed that inducing the trophotropic response in the medaka and African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) (Xenobase, 2015) would reverse and eliminate chemical carcinogenesis in both non-mammalian species. It was my intention to use microsurgery to implant brain electrodes in the two species of animals. I no longer conduct invasive procedures on animals.
Bio-informatics, mechatronics and nano-science were only on the horizon and the NIH thought the grant application I submitted to them was a bit too far into the future. Prior to Benson’s discovery of the relaxation response (RR) among meditators and/or yogis, Hess (Jacobs, 2001) had demonstrated the animal version of it the in trophotropic response (TR) in cats. Electrodes were surgically implanted in the brains of the felines. Elicitations of the TR in animals are equivalent to inducing the RR in humans by yoga or meditation. One day in the late spring of 1993 or 1994, I received intellectual affirmation for my hypothesis on the TR in non-mammalian species.
A tall elder states man and laureate of neuroscience delivered a classic lecture on his pioneering studies on remote electrical stimulation of the brain of animals. Though he was in his 70’s and declared himself a dinosaur of neuroscience, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado (Blackwell, 2013) delivered an electrifying lecture to an engaged audience of physicians and scientists at Tulane University. RFIDs bring me back to a future when electromagnets will be used to induce an altered state of consciousness in animals that is equivalent to yoga meditation. I hope in that future, RFIDs will be classified, in risk assessment terms, as having no adverse effects levels (NOELS).
References
Blackwell, B. (2013, May 30). A distinguished but controversial career: Jose Manuel Rodriguez Delgado. International Network for the History of Neuropharmacology. Retrieved from http://inhn.org/biographies/a-distinguished-but-controversial-career-jose-delgado-by-barry-blackwell.html
Jacobs, G. D. (2001). The Physiology of mind–body interactions: The stress response and the relaxation response. Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, 7(6), 83-92. http://dx.doi.org /10.1089/107555301753393841
Xenobase. (2015). Introduction to Xenopus, the frog model. Retrieved from http://www.xenbase.org/anatomy/intro.do
Hello Robert thank you for your positive feedback. Sure, the jury in the halls of science has not yet made its decision. Personally, I am not going to wait on the jury of my peers, including the risk assessors, toxicological pathologists, neuroscientists and biophysicists. I have had several teleological views on problems in biology prior to the views becoming validated hypotheses.
ReplyDeleteAbout twenty years ago, I had the hunch or teleological view (Robeiro et al., 2015) that the PCBs can reduce echolocation in bats and cetaceans, by endocrine disruption and regression of the development of the auditory nervous systems of both mammals. I was able to test some of my hypotheses by studying bay-caught and stranded harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in British waters. In 1999, I presented my studies at the Annual Conference of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) in Chicago, Illinois. I had correlated histo-morphometric data on the thyroids of several cetaceans with blubber concentrations of organochlorines and other pathology data (Walcott, 1999). At the Chicago ACVP meeting, I recalled one eminent veterinary pathologist stating that there was not much significance attached to the swollen thyroids of several stranded cetaceans. Today many of my colleagues are testing my hypotheses in a variety of aquatic vertebrates (Castellote et al., 2014). Molecular biology has also now established that there are commonalities between the genomes of toothed whales and bats, especially pertaining to biosonar (Jones, 2010; Li, Liu, Shi, & Zhang, 2010).
Here in Brooklyn, where the first electron micrographs of biological specimens were prepared, Damadian (Wehrum, 2011), an internist developed the hypothesis that the NMR spectrometer can be re-configured into a whole body scanner. Presidential Candidate Jimmy Carter was approached by Damadian for grant support and ignored. NMR scanners cost millions of dollars and are present in major hospitals. Damadian, a multi-billionaire is still fighting a battle about his rights to share the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (Hillman & Goldsmith, 2011; Wolohan, 2009).
References
Castellote, M., Mooney, T. A., Quakenbush, L., Hobbs, R., Goertz, C., & Gaglione, E. (2014). Baseline hearing abilities and variability in wild beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). Journal of Experimental Biology, 217(10), 1682-1691. http://dx.doi.org /10.1242/jeb.093252
Hillman, B. J., & Goldsmith, J. C. (2011). The sorcerer's apprentice : How medical imaging is changing health care. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/The-Sorcerers-Apprentice-Medical-Changing/dp/0195386965
Jones, G. (2010). Molecular evolution: gene convergence in echolocating mammals. Current Biology: CB, 20(2), R62-R64. http://dx.doi.org /10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.059
Li, Y., Liu, Z., Shi, P., & Zhang, J. (2010). The hearing gene Prestin unites echolocating bats and whales. Current Biology: CB, 20(2), R55-R56. http://dx.doi.org /10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.042
Ribeiro, M. L., Larentis, A. L., Caldas, L. A., Garcia, T. C., Terra, L. L., Herbst, M. H., & Almeida, R. V. (2015). On the debate about teleology in biology: the notion of "teleological obstacle". Historia, Ciencias, Saude--Manguinhos, 00. Retrieved from http://www.scielo.br/pdf/hcsm/2015nahead/0104-5970-hcsm-S0104-59702015005000003.pdf
Walcott, H.E. (1999). The effects of chlorinated biphenyls on the thyroids of harbor
porpoises from British Waters, (Abstract) Conference Proceedings of the American
College of Veterinary Pathologists’ 50th Annual Conference, USA, Chicago, Illinois.
Wehrum, K. (2011). How I did it? : Raymond Damadian. Inc, 33(3), 84-86. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110401/how-i-did-it-raymond-damadian.html
Wolohan, D. (2009). First scanner now a museum piece: development of MR imaging was a historic accomplishment. ASRT Scanner, 41(6), 57.
The one world/one health (OWOH) approach is, in many instances, taken for granted or underestimated in health initiatives and health policies. The breakthroughs in cardiovascular surgery (Quinn, 2013; Swindle, Makin, Herron, Clubb, & Frazier, 2012), controlling Ebola globally, the Apollo Space Missions and the NASA Space Shuttle Programs (Bourgeois, 2007; Lee, 2010; Smith, 2013) are only some examples. In each example, veterinarians worked with physicians and other health scientists on the biomedical components of the programs. When NASA sent animals into space laboratory animal veterinarians, zoo veterinarians and veterinary primatologists were responsible for the veterinary clinical care of the animals (Alvarado & Dixon, 2013).
ReplyDeleteThe US Navy’s marine mammal program housed at SPAWAR in San Diego has many aquatic veterinarians responsible for the health of the dolphins, seals and other aquatic mammals (Wolf, 2012). Dolphins were trained by the US Navy to rescue astronauts from the Apollo missions whose capsules would land in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. Marine mammals have also been trained to carry micro-cameras on their fins to monitor the submarine environments around harbors and US naval vessels.
In TIPRP, OWOH will play important roles, especially in segments connecting human health to ecosystems health.
References
Alvarado, C. G., & Dixon, L. M. (2013). The laboratory animal veterinarian: More than just a mouse doctor. Missouri Medicine, 110(3), 223. Retrieved from http://cmp.missouri.edu/?p=20
Bourgeois, M. (2007). From 1946 to the present- NASA's contributions to the veterinary medical sciences. Veterinary Heritage: Bulletin of the American Veterinary History Society, 30(1), 4-8. Retrieved from http://www.avmhs.org/2014/AVMHS%20vet%20heritage%20contents.pdf
Campbell, M. R., Williams, D. R., Buckey, J. J., & Kirkpatrick, A. W. (2005). Animal surgery during spaceflight on the Neurolab Shuttle mission. Aviation, Space, And Environmental Medicine, 76(6), 589-593. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15945406
Lee, W-C (2010, August). Veterinary Medicine for Aerospace Medicine. KJAsEM Vol.20 (1). Retrieved from http://vet.snu.ac.kr/kor/html/bbs/newsletter/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2010/09/09/1259582.pdf
Quinn, R. W. (2013). Animal models for bench to bedside translation of regenerative cardiac constructs. Progress in Pediatric Cardiology, 35(Regenerative Cardiac Surgery), 91-94. http://dx.doi.org /10.1016/j.ppedcard.2013.08.001
Smith, D.F. (2013). Veterinarians in space: Exploring the frontiers of science. VERITAS. Retrieved from https://www.veritasdvmblog.com/vets-space-exploring-frontiers-science/
Swindle, M. M., Makin, A., Herron, A. J., Clubb, F. J., & Frazier, K. S. (2012). Swine as models in biomedical research and toxicology testing. Veterinary Pathology, 49(2), 344-356. http://dx.doi.org /10.1177/0300985811402846
Wolf, L. (2012, May 7). Marine mammal health. Chemical and Engineering News, 90 (19), 30-32. Retrieved from http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i19/Marine-Mammal-Health.html
For the readers of our blog, concerned about the health and safety of aquatic veterinarians, TIPRP intends to display a number of safety devices for the protection of the veterinarians treating aquatic animals in regions containing RFR-EMI. The items include fabric embedded in the wetsuit that will provide shielding from RFR-EMI. If exposure to RFR-EMI has an associated high risk for humans and animals, drones can be used for monitoring the contaminated aquatic and air environments.
ReplyDeleteAtlantis is a drone currently used by the Dynamics Systems Laboratory (DSL), where I am a visiting scientist to monitor ecological conditions in the highly polluted Gowans Canal in New York City (DSL, 2014). One of my research teams has also been developing a solar hydrogen electric biomechanical Portuguese man-o-war for monitoring surface and sub-surface aquatic environments (Khan and Boakye-Yeadom, 2011). Another team has been developing solar hydrogen electric biomechanical eel for environmental monitoring and for sub-aquatic search and rescue missions (Kravets, Panitz and Bush, 2013).
References
DSL. (2014, November 30). Brooklyn Atlantis robot captures photospheres in Gowanus Canal. Retrieved from http://engineering.nyu.edu/dsl/news/2014/11/30/brooklyn-atlantis-robot-captures-photospheres-gowanus-canal
Khan, A and Boakye-Yeadom, S. (2011). The development and testing of a solar hydrogen electric biomechanical Portuguese man-o-war biomechanical eel. Research Report, New York City Science and Engineering Fair
Kravets, J., Panitz, S.G., and Bush, B. (2013). The development and testing of a solar hydrogen electric biomechanical eel. Research Report, Google World Science Fair.
The readers of our blog may ask or may be asking themselves the following question: How will OWOH operate in TIPRP?
ReplyDeleteThere are many sectors of TIPRP in which OWOH will function and contribute to TIPRP’s success. TIPRP will collaborate with schools of veterinary medicine and schools of public health to increase public awareness about personal and safety protection from RFR-EMI. TIPRP will also collaborate with leading global biomedical research institutions on basic and applied research on the acute and chronic effects of RFR-EMI in humans, domestic and non-domestic animals. In US government user facilities such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL), staff scientists or affiliates of TIPRP will be able to conduct research using the instruments of ORNL.
Hello Bryan,
ReplyDeleteWe thank you for your important comment. With respect to IARC, though its findings are available to the lay public, its findings are sometimes ignored by the lay and medical scientific communities. Let us examine the classification of formaldehyde or methanal as a carcinogen. It was demonstrated that methanal causes nasal tumors in laboratory rodents. In 2004, IARC established that methanal causes nasopharyngeal tumors in humans (IARC, 2004). Formaldehyde is now classified as a Group 1 carcinogen. Group I classification means there is enough evidence in human and animal studies along with robust mechanistic human studies validating IARAC’s classification of methanal (FDA, 2010). The classification of methanal was not always as a Group I carcinogen.
I do recall in the 1990s trimming methnal preserved tissue for histopathology, under a hood as I completed a fellowship in toxicological pathology. I also recall seeing pregnant veterinary students wearing respirators when dissecting animal cadavers in the first year anatomy laboratory.
We are at a similar point in safety as existed for methanal 20-30 years ago and the IARC classification of RFR-EMI from cell phones and similar devices. IARC does recommend precaution, even though the radiation from cell phones is classified as 2 B carcinogens. The current classification for cell phones means there is limited evidence in humans and less than enough in humans. I predict that IARC will upgrade the classification to Group I for RFR-EMI in the next decade.
References
FDA. (2010. June 8). Cancer IARC classification. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/TobaccoProductsScientificAdvisoryCommittee/UCM215717.pdf
L'Abbate, N. (2011). Motivation and significance of IARC classification for mobile phone. Giornale Italiano Di Medicina Del Lavoro Ed Ergonomia, 33(3 Suppl), 384-387.
IARC. (2004). IARC classifies formaldehyde as carcinogenic to humans. Retrieved from http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2004/pr153.html