FW: X-rays or strip search?

["Carter, Alan" <Alan.Carter@health.wa.gov.au>]

Alan Carter,
Chief Radiographer.
Radiology and Bone Density Service,
King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women,
P.O. Box 134, Subiaco. WA. 6008. Australia
E-mail: alan.carter@health.wa.gov.au

> ----------
> From: 	Vincent.King@DOEGJPO.COM[SMTP:Vincent.King@DOEGJPO.COM]
> Reply To: 	radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: 	Saturday, 5 December 1998 1:34
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	X-rays or strip search?
> 
> Vincent,
> As a Radiographer I couldn't agree more!
> Well said!
> 
> 
>      Group,
>      
>      Mr. Ford and others illustrate my concern perfectly: while pursuing 
>      our careers as safety professionals, let's not allow ourselves to 
>      become so tunnel-visioned that we lose perspective, describing the 
>      trees in excruciating detail and yet wondering where this 'forest' 
>      is that everyone keeps talking about.
>      
>      Most of us, myself included, are required by our jobs to consider 
>      the microscopic, postulated risks that are assumed to be associated 
>      with millirems of exposure. I'm not criticizing anyone for taking 
>      this part of our job seriously.  I think we cover that end of the 
>      risk spectrum quite well, even with our differing viewpoints.   
>      
>      But if we must take those risks seriously, wouldn't it be supremely 
>      inconsistent to neglect consideration of the detriment to society 
>      from the bad things that x-ray (or other) searches can prevent?  
>      After all, the detriment of a single fatality that could have been 
>      prevented by such a search is measurable and very much real, not 
>      hypothetical.
>      
>      So if our risk 'equation' only includes the positive medical 
>      benefit to an individual, balanced against the assumed detriment of 
>      low-level radiation exposure, I think we're missing something. It 
>      is certainly justified to take that additional societal risk as 
>      seriously as the others we consider. 
>      
>      I don't care which method is best (x-rays or strip search); I DO 
>      care if we toss away a tool that could benefit society without 
>      examining what we are really doing. 
>      
>      Vincent King
>      vincent.king@doegjpo.com
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