"Radiation is a lifesaving tool that sometimes turns deadly; Computer errors often overlooked by technicians" by Walt Bogdanich, New York Times | January 24, 2010
NEW YORK - Americans today receive far more medical radiation than ever before. The average lifetime dose of diagnostic radiation has increased sevenfold since 1980, and more than half of all cancer patients receive radiation therapy. Without a doubt, radiation saves countless lives, and serious accidents are rare.
But patients often know little about the harm that can result when safety rules are violated and ever more powerful and technologically complex machines go awry. To better understand those risks, The New York Times examined thousands of pages of public and private records and interviewed physicians, medical physicists, researchers, and government regulators.
The Times found that while this new technology allows doctors to more accurately attack tumors and reduce certain mistakes, its complexity has created new avenues for error - through software flaws, faulty programming, poor safety procedures, or inadequate staffing and training. When those errors occur, they can be crippling....
Identifying radiation injuries can be difficult. Organ damage and radiation-induced cancer might not surface for years or decades, while underdosing is difficult to detect because there is no injury. For these reasons, radiation mishaps seldom result in lawsuits, a barometer of potential problems within an industry....
And that is the whole problem right there: It's an INDU$TRY, not an art!
Sure you want that MRI, CT Scan, or X-ray now?
"US seeks tighter radiation controls; Targets exposure in medical scans" by Matthew Perrone, Associated Press | February 10, 2010
WASHINGTON - Federal regulators will require manufacturers of high-grade medical imaging machines to include safety controls that prevent patients from receiving excessive radiation doses.
The proposal, revealed yesterday, is part of a multipronged effort to address reports of acute injuries and to reduce lifetime exposure to radiation, which has nearly doubled since 1980.
Above they said sevenfold.
WTF, MSM? You get hit with a blast in the head?
The Food and Drug Administration push will focus on high-tech machines such as CT scanners, which allow doctors to make lifesaving diagnoses but also expose patients to high doses of cancer-causing radiation....
The average American’s total radiation exposure has nearly doubled in the past three decades, largely due to CT scans and other next-generation imaging tests, according to recent studies.
They repeated the lie, readers! Why?
Medical radiation now accounts for more than half of the population’s total radiation exposure; it used to be just one-sixth.
FDA’s initiative comes five months after regulators began looking into reports of acute overdoses from CT scanning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. More than 250 patients there were exposed to excessive radiation, with many reporting losing hair and skin redness.
I just thought it was the hard-charging drinking and partying as a youth.
Since then the FDA has launched investigations into similar problems at two other California hospitals.
CT scans became popular because they offer a quick, relatively inexpensive way to get three-dimensional pictures that give an almost surgical view of the body. Doctors use them to evaluate trauma, stomach pain, seizures, chronic headaches, and other ailments.
Maybe not that inexpensive after all, 'eh?
They also carry a higher risk than older scans, however. One CT chest scan carries as much radiation as nearly 400 chest X-rays, according to government officials.
Yeah, don't think I want one of those.
There is some disagreement over the cancer risk associated with medical imaging, though virtually all medical societies recommend minimizing radiation exposure.
Yeah, now lie down in this tube please.
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