The fear of radiation in the human population is deep seated and dates back at least as far as the start of the nuclear arms

population is deep seated and dates back at least as far as the start of the nuclear arms race. It was even present shortly after the discovery of Roentgen’s mysterious X-rays (1). In medicine, the goal is to use radiation wisely and in limited quantities while not permitting unwarranted fear to compromise medical need. The benefits of any study must appropriately exceed the risks and application of diagnostic radiation and must not be so attenuated as to constrain one’s ability to obtain diagnostic information. On the other hand, numerous papers have been published by radiologists and physicists, in the recent few years that have advocated legitimate ways of decreasing patient exposure (2-7). Other articles focus primarily on risks by applying risk factors to large populations with only casual reference to the benefits that that radiation represents to the population (8). In 2009 a US government appointed commission recommended a significant decrease in the number of mammograms performed in the female population, contrary to evidence that suggests that the present recommendations are working to reduce breast cancer mortality (9). This was preceded by a report from the NCRP that medical radiation exposure has increased by a factor of about 6 since 1980 (10); primarily due to increases in the use of CT and cardiological nuclear medicine. While useful information, the media focused on this as a negative change rather than addressing the issues of the benefits that this brought in terms of better management of heart disease or better cancer diagnosis or the cell. Theoretically, any level of radiation exposure might result in such a critical change, but the likelihood is extremely small. Most such subcellular damage is corrected without consequence by cellular repair mechanisms. Accumulation of more exposure increases the number of random events, resulting in an increased likelihood of converting a normal cell into a neoplastic tissue. For these effects, the only protection is to keep exposure to radiation as low as reasonably possible.