Re: X-Ray Vision Is Here

["Robert M. Loesch" <loesch@spok.eh.doe.gov>]

At 10:50 AM 4/8/97 -0500, Roy Parker wrote:

[... snip - snip ...]

>I checked  the web  site for  Nicolet Imaging  Systems and  they have  a
>SECURE 1000 Personnel Security Screening System and state:
> 
>     Each full  body scan of the SECURE 1000 produces approximately
>     3 microREMs  of emission.  This is  equivalent to the exposure
>     every  person   receives  each  five  minutes  from  naturally
>     occurring background environmental radioactivity.
> 
>This  obviously   raises  some  moral,  ethical,  radiation  safety  and
>regulatory control  issues.   Among those  a departure of the prevailing
>philosophy  of   no  purposeful   ionizing  radiation  exposures  to  an
>individual unless  there  is  an  appropriate  medical  benefit  to  the
>individual.
> 
>This should be an interesting discussion.
> 
>Roy A. Parker, Ph.D.
>E-Mail: 70472.711@compuserve.com
>Tel: 504-924-1473
>Fax: 504-924-4269
> 
>

I don't believe that every purposeful exposure "must" have an appropriate
"medical" benefit to the individual.  What about occupational exposures?  
Although one could assume that employment and salary compensation benefits 
the individual by allowing a higher standard of living and hence better
health,
I don't think that was your intention by the statement.  It is also true then
that the SECURE 1000, would provide a direct medical benefit to the individual
by potentially preventing him or her from being blown up or killed during a
high-jacking.  The reason that medical exposures are not regulatorily
controlled
is that the medical benefit greatly out weighs the associated risk (in most 
cases).  Although 3 microrem is a small exposure, I'd assume that the exposure
one picks up waiting around in Grand Central Station is at least comparive if 
not larger.




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      _/_/        _/_/      _/_/_/_/   Robert M. Loesch
     _/  _/    _/   _/     _/         US Department of Energy
    _/   _/  _/      _/   _/         EH-52, GTN, 270CC
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  _/    _/  _/      _/  _/         Germantown, MD  20874-1290
 _/    _/    _/   _/   _/         Tel: 301 903-4443;  Fax: -7773
_/_/_/       _/_/     _/_/_/_/   loesch@spok.eh.doe.gov
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 "The definition of a public health disaster is a catastrophe so large
     that an epidemiologic study can detect it."    David Ozonoff