Re: Children may get too much radiation in CT scan

[denison.8@osu.edu]

Note that the following two paragraphs of the article nicely contradict
each other.

>And up to 500 children a year in the United States alone could die
>from cancer because of it, a second team of researchers said.

<snip>

>"In the United States, of approximately 600,000 abdominal and
>head CT examinations annually performed in children under the age
>of 15 years, a rough estimate is that 500 of these individuals might
>ultimately die from cancer attributable to the CT radiation."

Huge difference between the 500 deaths _per year_ stated in the first
paragraph and 500 deaths over the collective lifetimes of all the kids who
got CT's last year.  If the first statement were true, CT scans would be
banned by now, because the public wouldn't tolerate a _diagnostic_
procedure that killed almost 1 of every 1000 kids that had it done.

If the second statement is correct, the researchers have essentially said
that there will be no discernible difference in cancer incidence due to
radiation doses from CT scans.  At present, approximately 30% of Americans
are expected to get cancer during their lifetimes.  Out of a group of
600,000 people, this comes to 180,000 diagnosed cases.  The data set
required to be able to statistically defend pinning 500 of those cases
(0.278% of the total) on a particular cause would be absolutely monstrous.


Eric Denison
1729 Penworth Drive
Columbus OH 43229-5216
denison.8@osu.edu
(614) 433-0387


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