When the Cure Causes the Disease
For many doctors, it's almost a knee-jerk reaction. Something inside is going kablooey? Get thee to a CT scan!
But as it turns out, the technology -- as fantastic a diagnostic tool as it may be -- comes with a price, especially for kids.
According to a new study, CT scans given now may cause as many as 2% of cancer cases in a few decades. The risk is especially high for kids, who are more susceptible to radiation and more likely to develop cancer from it.
About
62 million scans were done last year, up from 3 million in
1980. More than 4 million were in kids. It's estimated that a third of the scans done are unnecessary, meaning 20 million adults and more than 1 million kids are pointlessly being put at risk.
And many doctors, say the researchers, have no idea of the danger involved:
We were astonished to find, when we were researching materials for this paper, how many doctors, particularly emergency room physicians, really had no idea of the magnitude of the doses or the potential risks that were involved.
So think twice before you agree to the zapper. Demand an MRI instead (which so far haven't been found to be dangerous, unless there's something metal nearby). They may be loud and scary, but at least they don't use deadly X-ray vision.
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