Patients’ Radiation Levels Boosted by Increased CT Scans
June 13th, 2012 tmccoy
Americans are being exposed to radiation at a higher rate than ever before.
Computed technology (CT), scans have tripled between 1996 and 2010. This means that the number of Americans who are experiencing these tests has increased immensely. CT scans expose the human body to large doses of radiation, which may lead to cancer years later. About 2% of cancer diagnoses in the future will result from this increase in radiation exposure due to medical testing. The use of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, a test which does not use radiation, quadrupled between 1996 and 2010.
People are being scanned more frequently, and higher radiation doses are given during these studies. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, the lead author of the study believes that “Imaging is clearly overused and we need to begin to make more informed choices regarding when and how to image, understanding that there are clear and definite benefits but also harms from imaging.”
Bloomberg.com
