[ RadSafe ] Adverse Health Consequences due to Extensive Exposures of Ionizing Radiation X-rays and Electromagnetic Radiation (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

Hi, Jon.

I am sorry to hear about your prostate cancer.  As a man entering the
age when prostate cancer is often first diagnosed, I have been paying
some attention to recent developments about screening and treatment.  I
know that it can be a condition where the answers are far from clear.  

Although I have only skimmed the document you attached, I have to say
that I am quite impressed with Mr. MacFeeley's work.  It is clearly
designed to inform, and not simply to advance a particular agenda (as is
the case with too many things I read).  

In interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I am not an x-ray
expert: I am mostly a radioactive materials guy, not so much a machine
produced radiation guy.  Still, I do know a fair amount about how
radiation interacts with the body, and I have participated in several
dose reconstructions, which essentially is what you are trying to do.  

Dose reconstruction can be very hard.  This is especially the case when
the geometry of sources (in this case tubes) is complex and not
available for examination, and the people being exposed are moving
around, and there is no documentation on which to base estimates.  On
more than one occasion I have seen reconstructions that had so many
(unavoidable) simplifying assumptions that the final number was useless.