How much X-ray radiation is safe?
It wasn’t that long ago — in the nineteen-forties — that people shopping for shoes routinely had their feet X-rayed. The idea was that X-rays could help sales clerks find shoes with a perfect fit. But by the mid-nineteen fifties, the Food and Drug Administration recognized the harmful effects of these shoe-store X-ray machines and banned them. Today we understand even more that the benefits of X-rays carry a risk. Children, in particular, are susceptible to such risks. One reason? When it comes to kids, potential problems have a lifetime to appear. That’s why pediatricians and other health-care providers are encouraged to prescribe X-rays only when absolutely necessary. At the University of Florida, researchers are giving doctors a clearer picture than ever before of how much radiation reaches sensitive tissues during routine X-rays and similar imaging. Their work will help minimize the risk of X-rays by making dosing much more accurate and tailored to individual patients. U-F scientis
