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Harmless?



Al Tschaeche writes in this month's HP newsletter:  



"The medical community must know something that I as a health physicist

don't know, namely that certain low doses of ionizing radiation are safe

and without harm. I just had an injection of 99mTc in preparation for a

bone scan. The 'Informed Patient Consent Form for Nuclear Medicine

Scanning' that I signed contained the statement under Risks and Side

Effects: 'The radiation dose to you and those around you is harmless.

There are no side effects from any of the substances.'"



This is not common, nor would I say a good, consent form language. It

does not reflect the general thinking of the medical community, in my

experience. Folks at the NIH put together some consent form language

that can be obtained, linked to doses from diagnostic radiology and

nuclear medicine exams, at

http://www.doseinfo-radar.com/RADARDoseRiskCalc.html  There are many

forms that such consent language can take; this is just one example of

well thought out language that I recommend (credit to Lisa Coronado and

colleagues). The language in the consent form that Al encountered should

definitely be changed to be more reflective of the current thinking of

health physicists, medical professionals, ethicists and others.





Mike



Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP

Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences 

Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences 

Vanderbilt University 

1161 21st Avenue South

Nashville, TN 37232-2675 

Phone (615) 343-0068

Fax   (615) 322-3764

Pager (615) 835-5153

e-mail     michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu 

internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com



 

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