I am 52, and I took dose in 6 nuclear refuelings (each refueling, less than 5 REM) and in addition, have had a brain and heart scan, (due to high cholesterol) thank you very much. What is this person saying??? How many REMS are we talking about? 650 Rems is the magic number. Plenty of honest, hard working folks survived Chernobyl, with some astronomical exposures.
My son’s doctor told me that one CT scan was = to 200-300 x-rays.
HOWEVER, my son both of those CT scans. Once for head trauma and once for severe chest pain. (The chest pain turned out to be broken rib heads. *Very* painful, but not fatal. But at the time, they thought he had a much more serious problem like air leaking from a lung or a blood clot in the chest cavity. They had to diagnose him in order to treat him fast.)
At 48, my lifetime dose is >30Rem. Chronic, occupational exposure. Big whoop. These articles written about ‘over-exposures’ are nothing less than ignaorant fear-mongering, unless the exposure is given.
What is ‘the risk’? At occupational levels of 1 Rem per year, there is an increase in the RISK of developing a cancer.
Well, the general population, regardless of risk factors, will have a cancer incidence of ~25%. Not fatal cancers, just cancer of some sort. 1 Rem/yr additional gives an additional .1% per Rem. My ‘risk’ would then be ~28%. Big deal.