John Gofman, professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology, conducted an intensive analysis comparing death rates in each of the country's nine census divisions with the average number of physicians per 100,000 people in these divisions. The analysis turned up a major surprise. Medical X-rays are a major cause of these deaths. Gofman does not discount the role of other factors in these diseases, including diet and smoking, but maintains that more than half the deaths from cancer and heart disease would not have occurred but for medical X-rays. He also acknowledges the value of X-rays in diagnosis and to monitor medical treatment.
People are smart.
Very soon, patients may insist on seeing some evidence that they will receive the lowest possible X-ray doses. He also urges radiologists to reduce radiation doses delivered in standard procedures, and in his study lists examples of how some hospitals and doctors have done this. But for many, many other X-ray procedures, the effort to achieve a tenfold reduction in dosage has not been made yet. The problem, he argues, is an almost casual use of X-rays in the past. Through the 1940s, X-ray dosages often were 50 to 100 times those used today.