Too much radiaton for your child from scans?

A new study says, “Yes.”

The country’s gone gaga over scanning and xray technology, promoted in part by doctors who have invested in the machines themselves, as well as an orientation to scanning in all cases to avoid the one-in-a-million risk. If you’re a kid though, a scan isn’t always a good idea. Parents need to better understand the risk of scans, especially to the head, and calculate risks before blinding saying ‘yes.’ My recommendation would be to be doubly cautious if your doctor owns a scanner or suggests going to a private clinic for the scan where he may or may not be an investor.

The New York Times today reported that a first large study shows that the average child will get more than seven radiation scans before the age of 18. Too much radiation can increase the risks of cancer.

Most of them involve X-rays. But there is growing concern about CT scans, which entail far more radiation and can raise the risk of cancer. More than 3 percent of children got two or more CT scans. “That’s particularly concerning,” said Dr. Adam Dorfman of University of Michigan Medical School, the lead author of the study, which appeared Monday in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

[From Study of Children Raises Concerns Over Radiation – NYTimes.com]