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The Facts About Radiation Exposure
Although LifeScore® believes radiation exposure should be carefully controlled, we also believe that the miniscule amounts received during our scans carry no to negligible risk. A TotalScore involves exposure to 400 - 500 millirems which is equivalent to .40 - .50 rads. A recent (11/27/01) article in the New York Times stated:
"The risks of getting cancer from exposure to radiation increase with dose. But since a third of all people get cancer anyway, at some time in their lives, the problem is to find evidence that low doses of radiation cause cancers that would not have otherwise occurred. Even for people exposed to large radiation doses, like the 80,000 to 90,000 survivors of the atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it has been hard to find excess cancers".
"They were exposed in 1945 and nearly half are still alive," said Dr. Dade W. Moeller, a radiation expert and professor emeritus at Harvard who runs a consulting company, Dade Moeller & Associates in New Bern, N.C. Dr. Mettler said the latest data show that 12,000 of these atomic bomb survivors had died from cancer. He said the number of excess cancers in the group is about 700.
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Comparison of Radiation Doses
Background Sunshine Radiation in 1 year: |
300 mrem |
Cross country airplane trip: |
2 mrem |
Standard Chest X-ray: |
8 to 10 mrem |
Standard Abdominal X-ray: |
48 mrem |
EBT Coronary Calcium Scan(heart): |
50 to 70 mrem |
EBT Low-dose Lung Scan: |
100 to 150 mrem |
EBT Abdominal/Pelvis Scan: |
100 to 300 mrem |
EBT Whole Body Scan: |
250 to 500 mrem |
EBT Non-invasive Coronary Angiogram: |
80 to 120 mrem |
Standard Coronary Angiogram: |
500 to 1000 mrem |
Standard Spine X-ray series: |
300 mrem |
Standard Lower G.I. X-ray series: |
600 mrem |
Spiral CT Whole body scan: |
600 to 1000 mrem |
The LifeScore Clinic uses EBT (electron beam CT scanner).
We are the only EBT scanner in San Diego.
EBT scanning provides high resolution low radiation medical imaging. |
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Those data, Dr. Mettler said, show that there is a small risk of cancer with an exposure of tens of thousands of millirem of radiation.
"There's
a group that says that if you can't see it, it doesn't
exist," Dr. Mettler said. "Then there's
another group that says, `That's nice, but it doesn't
mean it doesn't happen.'
Now, some
scientists even say low radiation doses may be beneficial.
They theorize that
these doses protect against cancer by activating cells'
natural defense mechanisms. As evidence, they cite
studies,
like one in Canada of tuberculosis patients who had
multiple chest X-rays and one of nuclear workers
in
the United States. The tuberculosis patients, some
analyses said, had fewer cases of breast cancer than
would be
expected and the nuclear workers had a lower mortality
rate than would be expected."
Given the large amounts of
valuable information every client to LifeScore® receives,
versus the theoretically minute risk from radiation,
we do not believe that radiation exposure
should be a serious concern for our clients.
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