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National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Report Shows Substantial Medical Exposure Increase1

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Report Shows Substantial Medical... National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Report Shows Substantial Medical Exposure Increase 1 David A. Schauer , ScD, CHP and Otha W. Linton , MSJ 1 From the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, 7910 Woodmont Ave, Suite 400, Bethesda, MD 20814-3095 (D.A.S.); and International Society of Radiology, Bethesda, Md (O.W.L.). Address correspondence to D.A.S. (e-mail: schauer@ncrponline.org ). Americans were exposed to more than seven times as much ionizing radiation from diagnostic medical procedures in 2006 than they were in the early 1980s.The increase over the past quarter century puts the cumulative national medical exposures on a level with natural background radiation exposure. The largest part of the increase in medical exposure was from computed tomography (CT) scans, amounting to almost one-half of the imaging exposure, and nuclear cardiac scans, amounting to one-fourth of the current total. These amounts were the key elements in a new report (report no. 160, Ionizing Radiation Exposure of the Population of the United States 1 ), which was issued by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) during its 2009 annual meeting in March. In addition to estimates of background exposure at 50% and medical exposure at 48% of the total, the report also covered radiation from consumer products and industrial, research, and occupational exposures, amounting to a cumulative 2% (Fig 1, Table). Many of the numbers are comparable to those cited by Mettler et al in this issue of Radiology ( 3 ). Figure 1: Collective effective dose as a percentage for all exposure categories in 2006, according to NCRP report no. 160 ( 1 ). View this table: In this window In a new window Magnitude of Changes in Collective Effective Dose and Effective Dose per Individual in the U.S. Population between Early 1980s and 2006 NCRP report no. 160 ( 1 ) was crafted to show the differences in population and individual exposures since publication of its previous report, report no. 93 ( 2 ). The estimated cumulative individual dose from all sources in the early 1980s was 3.6 mSv and in 2006 was 6.2 mSv, almost double the previously reported value. The increase in the medical exposure was the only significant change in the two estimates. … Full Text of this Article http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Radiology Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Report Shows Substantial Medical Exposure Increase1

Schauer, David A.; Linton, Otha W.
Radiology , Volume 253 (2): 293 – Nov 1, 2009
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Publisher
Radiological Society of North America, Inc.
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by Radiological Society of North America
ISSN
1527-1315
eISSN
0033-8419
DOI
10.1148/radiol.2532090494
pmid
19864524
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Report Shows Substantial Medical Exposure Increase 1 David A. Schauer , ScD, CHP and Otha W. Linton , MSJ 1 From the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, 7910 Woodmont Ave, Suite 400, Bethesda, MD 20814-3095 (D.A.S.); and International Society of Radiology, Bethesda, Md (O.W.L.). Address correspondence to D.A.S. (e-mail: schauer@ncrponline.org ). Americans were exposed to more than seven times as much ionizing radiation from diagnostic medical procedures in 2006 than they were in the early 1980s.The increase over the past quarter century puts the cumulative national medical exposures on a level with natural background radiation exposure. The largest part of the increase in medical exposure was from computed tomography (CT) scans, amounting to almost one-half of the imaging exposure, and nuclear cardiac scans, amounting to one-fourth of the current total. These amounts were the key elements in a new report (report no. 160, Ionizing Radiation Exposure of the Population of the United States 1 ), which was issued by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) during its 2009 annual meeting in March. In addition to estimates of background exposure at 50% and medical exposure at 48% of the total, the report also covered radiation from consumer products and industrial, research, and occupational exposures, amounting to a cumulative 2% (Fig 1, Table). Many of the numbers are comparable to those cited by Mettler et al in this issue of Radiology ( 3 ). Figure 1: Collective effective dose as a percentage for all exposure categories in 2006, according to NCRP report no. 160 ( 1 ). View this table: In this window In a new window Magnitude of Changes in Collective Effective Dose and Effective Dose per Individual in the U.S. Population between Early 1980s and 2006 NCRP report no. 160 ( 1 ) was crafted to show the differences in population and individual exposures since publication of its previous report, report no. 93 ( 2 ). The estimated cumulative individual dose from all sources in the early 1980s was 3.6 mSv and in 2006 was 6.2 mSv, almost double the previously reported value. The increase in the medical exposure was the only significant change in the two estimates. … Full Text of this Article

Journal

Radiology – Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

Published: Nov 1, 2009

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