[ RadSafe ] CT scans dangerous?

[Brunkow, Ward]

Good issue to bring up. I think the answer is as it has been for
decades:
>ALARA principal is not observed well within the medical community
>Dr.s aren't trained well in radiation safety and therefore prescribe
diagnostic use freely
>I think the older CT scanners were giving 12 -20 Rem  acute exposure at
times, especially upper and lower GI
>Not enough consideration given to rapidly dividing cells, young people
>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, money driven yet, not ethical to give
someone this exposure if there isn't significant benefit, especially
younger person, but have to keep those bucks coming in
>Too much "cook book" diagnosis in medical community yet, diagnostic
(therapeutic for that matter also) radiation exposure used too freely.
The Prescribe and move on to the next one.... premise....



W. G. (Ward) Brunkow
DOE Contractor (former Medical School RSO)




----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Steven Dapra
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 7:42 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] CT scans dangerous?

Oct. 29, 2007

	This article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Oct. 14 was
published 
in today's Albuquerque Journal.

	The link 
is: 
http://gr.acr.org/acr?action=viewNewsArticle&documentId=2c9e4f69159c076a
01159e51df09009d. 
This is the website of the American College of Radiology.  (The article 
didn't seem to be available on the SFS-S website.)

	According to the article, the ECRI Institute "an independent
research 
group, estimates that CT scans cause 6,000 cases of cancer per year,
half 
of them fatal, making them more of a risk than wrong-site surgeries."

	The ECRI's URL is <http://www.ecri.org/Pages/default.aspx>.  It
was 
founded in 1968 as the Emergency Care Research Institute.  A summary of
its 
history will be found here:
<http://www.ecri.org/About/Pages/History.aspx>.

	Any comments on the article about CT scans?

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com


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