[ RadSafe ] More "protection"

[John Jacobus]

Jim,
I am not familiar with any rules governing MRI
physicians or workers in the US.  What is the source
of the article?

A couple of MRI safety site mention metal clips
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/mrisafety.html 
and http://www.radiographicceu.com/article12.html

The OSHA Web site does not have much on MRI
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/radiofrequencyradiation/healtheffects.html


--- "Muckerheide, James" <jimm at WPI.EDU> wrote:

> Friends,
> 
>  
> 
> This is about non-ionizing radiation protection. 
> Note the ref to the rules
> to protect workers, primarily telecommunications and
> electricity industry
> workers.  The were Congressionally mandated
> scientific reviews in the U.S. in
> the 1990s on this, which seemed to have found no
> evidence of risks to
> workers.  Does anyone know how the EU/UK
> guidelines/proposed rules compare to
> applicable U.S. regulations? And whether any U.S.
> rules apply to MRI
> physicians as well as telecomm and electrical
> workers?
> 
>  
> 
> Regards, Jim Muckerheide
> 
> ======================
> 
>  
> 
> Published online: 20 September 2005; |
> doi:10.1038/news050919-4 
> 
> 
> Radiation law to block doctors' work
> 
> 
> European regulations on MRI scans too strict,
> experts say. 
> 
> Jennifer Wild
> 
> Doctors across Europe are complaining loudly about
> new regulations on
> radiation exposure, which they say will needlessly
> hinder their use of
> magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when treating
> patients. 
> 
> The European Union Physical Agents Directive, set to
> become law in April
> 2008, is aimed at protecting workers in
> telecommunications and the
> electricity industry from possible health risks
> caused by exposure to
> electromagnetic radiation. 
> 
> Strong fields can induce a current within tissues,
> which heats them up and
> may cause damage. Some controversial studies have
> suggested that such fields
> may also damage DNA.
> 
> But the rules will also keep doctors away from MRI
> machines, which are
> another source of electromagnetic radiation. This
> will prevent nervous
> patients from being accompanied during scans, and
> may even restrict proper
> cleaning of the devices. 
> 
> Slim evidence
> 
> Doctors say that MRI scanners are not dangerous, and
> that although the
> electromagnetic frequencies from these devices can
> gently heat tissues and
> stimulate nerves in the spine, this does not lead to
> damage because the
> heating effects are miniscule.
> 
> Peter Mansfield, a retired Nobel Prize winner who
> played a key role in
> developing MRI, says the regulations are detrimental
> and "should be sent back
> to the drawing board". 
> 
> He and others note that MRI scans have been used to
> see inside the human body
> since the beginning of the 1980s, with no known ill
> effects.
> 
> Any firm evidence of adverse effects from standing
> next to a scanner is
> sparse, says Ian Young, a retired engineer who
> helped to build the first MR
> scanner for medical imaging. He adds that
> unpublished conference abstracts
> may have fuelled the directive and the advisory
> guidelines that precede it.
> 
> Michael Clark, a scientist at the Health Protection
> Agency in the UK, says
> the directive is designed to protect workers. He
> admits that doctors are
> right to point out the lack of clear evidence of
> harmful effects, but says:
> "We are dealing with a new technology and perhaps a
> bit of caution is
> necessary". "We can't rule out any long-term
> effect," he warns.
> 
> The directive will turn the UK's current advisory
> guidelines into law. These
> guidelines are based on the advice of the
> International Commission on
> Non-ionizing Radiation Protection and the National
> Radiological Protection
> Board. Researchers say these guidelines are also
> strict, but few people have
> complained as they are only voluntary.
> 
> Worst afflicted
> 
> The patients most affected by the changes will
> probably be anxious children
> and patients requiring specialized heart
> investigations. In the absence of a
> comforting hand, scared children may undergo more
> harmful but less
> intimidating X-ray imaging. And nervous patients may
> have to be anaesthetized
> before being scanned, subjecting them to an
> unnecessary risk.
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea and never shrinks back to its original proportion." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


		
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