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.
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.
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!)
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