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RE: Attitude to 'Risky' Treatment

Thanks Chris,



It will be interesting to see how this is eventually applied in the face

of current medical research practice that tends to let 1000 people die

if there is a chance that an intervention (practice or drug) will injure

anyone, until the risks are fully quantified (through clinical trials),

and then if some previously unquantified risk appears, tend to stop

using the drug even if thousands of people are being helped/saved.



But then this doesn't apply for drugs that have been in long-term use

even if they are known to have small benefits but kill many people every

year.



And then there is the killing of a million people from malaria that

could be saved by the use of DDT, etc.



With LDR, hundreds of people are killed from virulent infections every

year with costly intensive use of costly antibiotics that could be

quickly saved using LDR. 



Thanks.

Regards, Jim 





-----Original Message-----

From: Chris Davey [mailto:chris.davey@cancerboard.ab.ca] 

Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 2:37 PM

To: Ted Rockwell; ANS-PIE; Rad-Sci-L; RADSAFE

Subject: Attitude to 'Risky' Treatment





Hi All,



Please check out the following link:

www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030924/04

<http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030924/04>



Note especially the second and third paragraphs:



But what does it mean? "It means we'll be taking decisions much quicker

and

being willing to take some more risks, not risks with lives but to save

lives," a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson told The

Scientist.



Jim Kim, advisor on HIV/AIDS and severe acute respiratory syndrome

(SARS) to

the WHO director-general , told The Scientist , "We are declaring an

emergency because to bicker and argue while people are dying is not

acceptable."



To see authorities saying that it is necessary to take risks to save

lives,

and that bickering and arguing while people are dying is not acceptable,

makes me think about our low level radiation treatments, which are not

even

risky, and would reduce the numbers of people dying, by a very large

proportion.



It's time the same attitude prevailed in radiation safety!



Regards,



Chris



-- Provincial Radiation Safety Officer  Alberta Cancer Board

   11560 University Avenue (Room 4027)

   Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 1Z2

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   Email:  chris.davey@cancerboard.ab.ca

   Member of the Board of Directors,

   Canadian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA)

   CRPA Website:  www.crpa-acrp.ca