Americans shocked by radiation exposure
Talk about blind faith…
When it comes to CT scans, a new study finds that most people have no clue how much radiation they give off, what risks are associated with them, or even what the machines are.
Yet they believe in them anyway!
Researchers sprang a pop quiz on 1,168 patients in an emergency room — not the best time for a science test, but I’ve always said the hospital is the LAST place you should ever let your guard down.
But for many of these patients, that wasn’t a problem — because they never had much of a guard in the first place.
Example: Most of them said they didn’t think CT scans came with a cancer risk.
Where’s my buzzer? BUZZZZ! WRONG!
I hope someone set them straight afterwards — because CT scans have rapidly turned into a leading cause of the disease, responsible for one percent of all new cases.
What’s more, three-quarters of the patients said they believed CT scans delivered the same amount of radiation as regular X-rays.
BUZZZZ! Wrong again! CT scans can be up to 1,000 times more powerful than chest X-rays.
Think that’s bad? This gets even worse — because almost 40 percent of the patients who said they never had a CT scan were — BUZZZ! BUZZZ! BUZZZ! — wrong.
When researchers looked at their histories, do you know what they found? You guess it: CT scans. So while the radiation risks may linger… the impression, apparently, does not.
And now, get ready for the punchline — because while these patients were clearly clueless on CT scans, they still had tons of faith in them. Ninety percent said they had confidence in a diagnosis made with a CT scan and blood test.
Without those tests, just 20 percent said they had confidence.
I’d use my buzzer, but I think I broke it four paragraphs ago. Fact is, CT scans are badly overused and often completely unnecessary for a proper diagnosis.
And any doc who tells you otherwise is wrong.
Jan. 31, 2011