WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF DIAGNOSTIC MEDICAL RADIATION

If is both ethically and economically desirable to restrict the use of diagnostic medical radiation to only those who will benefit from it. However, patients should not refuse diagnostic tests based on an exagg erated estimation of the risks because most of these tests involve low doses of radiation. If is probable that the risks derived from studie s of the atomic bomb survivors, who were exposed to high doses of radi ation, overestimate the risks at low doses. No evidence of thyroid can cer, leukaemia or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has been found in patients ex posed to diagnostic levels of ionising radiation. For most diagnostic tests, the risks arising from the radiation exposure are too small to be observed and the benefits will almost always outweigh the risk.