From: Technotranscendence (neptune@superlink.net)
Date: Sun Sep 14 2003 - 09:58:06 MDT
On Sunday, September 14, 2003 11:20 AM Robert J. Bradbury
bradbury@aeiveos.com wrote:
>> Also, people have perhaps become too
>> paranoid about these things. I have a
>> close friend who won't take dental X-rays
>> because he fears getting cancer. Now I
>> don't know the statistical correlation between
>> dental X-rays and cancers, but the funny
>> thing is neither does he!
>
> Dan, X-rays are an ionizing radiation and
> so are clearly harmful --
I did not argue that they were not harmful. My point was that a dental
X-ray has benefits too, such as in diagnosing tooth decay and even gum
disease. One has to evaluate getting them with respect to both the
risks and the benefits. The same is true of many other known harmful
things, such as other X-rays and other medical procedures. In some
cases, they might not be worth the risk -- as in full body scans in
people who have no symptoms for any diseases. The exposure to
X-radiation in those seems out of proportion to the benefits.
(Hopefully, as scanning technology becomes better, this can be
mitigated. I'm only talking about the state of the art now in the
popular full body scans.)
Also, regarding my friend, he did not make his choice based on a review
of the data. It's sort of like he's decided not to ever fly in planes
because planes can crash.
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/MyWorksBySubject.html
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