• Question: Is being radioactive in a test at ball dangerous

    Asked by raheem da dream of bagels to Christopher, Dan, Jen, Mohan, Sarah on 9 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Daniel Fovargue

      Daniel Fovargue answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      It depends how much radiation, what type of radiation, and for how long. Usually everyone’s exposure to dangerous radiation is kept very careful track of. And there are some well known limits for how long you can exposed at one time, but also total lifetime or yearly limits as well. Anyone who works with radiation will have a lot of safety classes so that they know these limits very well.

    • Photo: Jen Dennis

      Jen Dennis answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      That’s a great question!

      The answer is yes and no. There is a risk to being exposed to radiation in that it increases your overall risk of cancer. BUT, if you’ve got something wrong with you and you need to find out what it is so that you can get the right treatment, then the benefit of having the test and getting the best treatment outweighs the risk from the radiation.

      So yes, it’s a little bit dangerous (but not nearly as dangerous as crossing the road!) but there’s a real benefit for the patients in having the test so that is more important overall.

    • Photo: Sarah De Vos

      Sarah De Vos answered on 9 Mar 2017:

      Statistics are usually quite good for putting this kind of thing into context:

      The risk of causing cancer, over a lifetime, of an X-ray, is: 1 in 1,000,000

      The risk of death, per year, due to an accident in the home, is: 1 in 10,000

    • Photo: Mohan K

      Mohan K answered on 10 Mar 2017:

      We work on the basis that any amount of radiation poses a risk, but its about ensuring the benefit from that exposure vastly outweighs the risk.

      For example, a nuclear medicine bone scan is one of the highest doses of radiation we give in a diagnostic scan, but it is crucial is help us see if cancer has spread into the bones. (and the overall risk is still very small. Equivalent to roughly 2 – 3 years of background radiation- the amount of radiation you receive anyway from the environment and food!)

Comments