Persons in many occupations encounter radiation above normal background as a natural part of their jobs. The doses received can be up to several rem of exposure over the course of a year. Medical uses of radiation Medical uses of radiation are roughly broken into therapy and diagnosis. Therapy is primarily used to kill cancerous tumors, but has been used for other treatments. Most of the dose is received in a small area of the body.
Diagnosis runs from fairly routine X-rays to injections of radioactive material and imaging.
These doses can be several hundred mrem for diagnosis and up to several hundred rem locally for treatments. The physician who prescribes radiation treatments and diagnosis weighs the risk of the radiation with the benefit of the treatment. All of the sources of radiation, other than natural, are regulated by laws passed by Congress. Like any other law, we have our right to voice our views and opinions about it. The regulations that control the use of radioactivity in our country are based on recommendations of science organizations like the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the National Council on Radiation Protection, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations and the Health Physics Society.