Re: Medical vs. Occupational Exposures OPINION

["H.Wade Patterson" <hwade@talltown.com>]

Group:
One reason for not tracking medical exposures is that we don't know how
to do it.
Surely the dental bitewing must be one of, or perhaps, the most common
sources of human radiation exposure.
For each bitewing the mas and the kV are known.
Also known are the age and sex of the patient.
Also known and recorded is the blackening on the film, which is directly
proportional to "dose" (Sv).
With this information it is scientifically possible to quantify, for
scientific purposes, the "dose" delivered by each bitewing.
This is never done.
NCRP has never specified W(t) and W(r) for this procedure, the most
common source of human exposure to radiation, because they cannot do so.
They cannot do so because W(t) and W(r) have no scientific meaning. They
cannot be measured, nor can estimates of them be generally confirmed by
independent observations.
-- 
H.Wade Patterson
1116 Linda Lane
Lakeview OR 97630
ph 541 947-4974

"When we hold a conclusion inviolate, sometimes the assumptions require
certain adjustments."  Harold Hopfenberg, Prof. of Chem. Eng., N.
Carolina State University.