A question about medical training

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

Dear RADSAFERs,

We have a local anti-nuke activist who is a physician (please note that I am
deliberately not identifying him).  However, in a fairly extended
conversation with me he seemed to know very little about ionizing radiation.
He had a vague idea about half life, but did not understand the relationship
between half-life and radioactivity, did not appear to know what alpha, beta
and gamma radiation were, didn't understand decay chains, etc.  Most of what
he asked me about was stuff I used to teach in (college) freshman chemistry.
So my question is: what is taught currently in medical school and pre-med
courses about ionizing radiation?  could someone give me a summary?  How
much is a doctor expected to know (he sends people for x-rays, after all)?
Was this person just trying to see if I knew what I was talking about?



Thanks for your help
Ruth F. Weiner, Ph. D.
7336 Lew Wallace NE
Albuquerque, NM
505-856-5011
fax 505-856-5564
ruth_weiner@msn.com




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