Radiation exposure: How much is too much?
How much exposure is too much when it comes to radiation? Though Americans receive more than 85 million CT scans annually—compared to three million per year in the 1980s—there’s no formula to answer how much radiation exposure is extensive.
In 2004, researchers estimated a 45-year-old who planned to get 30 annual full-body CT exams would only have a two percent lifetime risk of a cancer-related death. While a 2009 study showed two percent of the 1.7 million cancers diagnosed in the U.S. in 2007 were caused by CT scans.
Russ Ritenour, PhD, a medical physicist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, noted there is no absolute number of scans “that constitute a tipping point for health.”
“Radiation does have some risk,” Ritenour told the Washington Post. “But it is important for medicine — and in most cases, the risk is quite small compared to the risk of taking too much Advil over your life and other things like that.”
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As a senior news writer for TriMed, Subrata covers cardiology, clinical innovation and healthcare business. She has a master’s degree in communication management and 12 years of experience in journalism and public relations.