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UK’s rising use of CT scans causing radiation worries

Certain CT scans can be up to 400 times more powerful than a chest x-ray…….

(UK) Radiation: are we putting our health at risk with increased CT scans?, The Ecologist, Eifion Rees10th March, 2011 Tesco provoked an outcry by offering Clubcard members the opportunity to redeem points for a CT scan. Now, increasing numbers of scans in NHS and private hospitals are causing concerns that we are over-exposing ourselves to radiation.
The UK population is receiving almost a quarter more medical radiation than it did a decade ago, according to the most recent report from the Health Protection Agency.
Looking at a sample 29 NHS Trusts in England, the report reveals that the dose per head of the population was 0.33 millisievert (mSv) in 1997/98, rising to 0.4 mSv in 2008, an increase of 23 per cent.
An estimated 46 million NHS and private medical and dental x-rays were carried out in 2008, a 10 per cent rise over 10 years.

The increase is due in large part to the use of computerised tomography (CT), with the number of CT scans rising by 68 per cent over the same period. Conventional radiographic and fluoroscopic x-rays contribute only 19 per cent to the collective dose, despite constituting 90 per cent of all examinations. Certain CT scans can be up to 400 times more powerful than a chest x-ray…….

Radiation: are we putting our health at risk with increased CT scans? – The Ecologist

March 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, UK