Exposure to
radiation from medical tests is a very important problem and in the New England
Journal of Medicine, they took a look. A study of 952,000 non-elderly
adults found that over two-thirds were exposed to twice as much radiation as
they would have received from natural sources because of medical imaging.
Women and older individuals were at greater risk for radiation exposure.
The study found that CT scans and nuclear tests accounted for three-quarters of
non-treatment-based medical radiation exposure. An accompanying editorial
called for the clinical trials to prove whether or not diagnostic tests and imaging
prevented major medical problems or reduced costs, or whether they're worth the
inherent risk of developing cancer from radiation exposure. A report by
the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, Americans are
exposed to a great deal of radiation.
