nuclear-news

Patients endangered by poor regulation of medical radiation

Inadequate regulation puts patients at risk | The Platform | STLtoday, 5 March 2010, Seventy-six patients at a Springfield, Mo., health center received radiation overdoses while being treated for head and neck tumors. On average, they got 50 percent more radiation than had been prescribed.The problems at CoxHealth began in 2004 and continued unnoticed until September. Sophisticated equipment used for the treatment was improperly calibrated when it was installed.There was no independent check of the calibration, and no state or federal regulation requires it. And there are no rules requiring physicists who calibrate the equipment or the technicians who administer the treatment to be certified………..medical professionals fear that an inconsistent patchwork of federal and state rules allow the same errors to occur again and again.
The faulty calibration that led to radiation overdoses in Springfield was reminiscent of problems at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. In 2005, 77 Florida patients received excessive radiation.

Inadequate regulation puts patients at risk | The Platform | STLtoday

March 5, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, radiation, radioactive