CT Scan

[livingwith]

My son was recently given a brain ct scan in a emergency room, thankfully they found nothing other than a sinus infection. It was a while later that I was curious about the radiation dose and looked on-line to find to my horror that he has a definite increase cancer risk now from that CT scan. My son also had a barium swallow as a infant a chest x-ray and a leg x-ray, nobody asked me about previous radiation exposure which makes his risk even greater.
I really feel there should be a change i...Read the full article

[bballjane]

If your son got as much radiation as the people did from the hiroshima bombing, he would be dead. You can't protect him from radiation. You live in radiation. You are exposed to 200 mrem of radiation through the air (maybe even more if depending where you live), 96 mrem from cosmic radiation, 1 mrem annually from watching tv, 1 mrem from using a computer screen (like you are using now), .5 mrem for every hour you spend in an airplane (even more for going through airport security), and even 1 for having a crown on any of your teeth. Radiation is part of everyday life. Your son will get more radiation from being outside and doing his everyday activities (average per person is 295 mrem per year) than he got from his one CT scan (110 mrem). People who work in radiation every day are allowed to get 5,000 mrems a year before there is even a concern. As you can see, your son is more likely to die from the radiation dose he gets every single day, than he is to die from cancer from the 1 CT scan that he had. CT scans are ordered out by doctors who think they are needed in order to diagnosis a patient. Doctors know the risks and benefits of having CT scans and still order them when the benefits outweight the risks. What if instead of sinus infection your son had a brain tumor? Would you let them do a CT scan then?