X-rays cause cancer?!

[-Demosthenes-]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3442113.stm

I read that X-rays could cause cancer! Is that true??

[mossoi]

Yes, it's very well known and has been for decades. This is why doctors retire behind a lead screen when they x-ray you or leave the room and why you are given a lead apron to wear if you are having a limb x-rayed.

 

Most vets will also ask the oldest person to hold a pet for an x-ray as they have less time to live and can more afford to use up some of their lifelong "radiation quota" - strange, but there you go.

 

It's deemed a justifiable risk to expose people to small amounts of x-ray radiation in order to diagnose injuries and infection.

 

I think the main drive of the article is that x-rays are causing MORE cancer than was previously thought.

 

In the forties/fifties shoe shops in Britain used to have x-ray machines for measuring the size of feet. My parents tell me of how they used to play with it when they were waiting for their parents. This is before the implications of x-ray exposure were fully understood.

[-Demosthenes-]

I see, the whole think was just surprising.

[YT2095]

mossoi said in post # :

It's deemed a justifiable risk to expose people to small amounts of x-ray radiation in order to diagnose injuries and infection.

 

in addition to this, it also identifies alot more cancers than it causes too, by a significant margine!

[-Demosthenes-]

Oh, so there's a really really small chance.

[superchump]

You have to have a lot of X-rays taken is what they are saying.

[-Demosthenes-]

okay

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

So if you have bat teeth and the dentist has to keep xraying them, CANCER ALERT!

[YT2095]

no, your dentist will be aware of how many x-rays and over what period of time you had them. they don`t just let ANYONE use these machines. you must be properly trained, and that training will include what`s safe and what isn`t.

[daisy]

However..the DNA of some people may be more sensitive to radiation damage than others, this has implications for cancer treatments.....Scott et al. 1994 (I think)

[Crash]

But to be on the safe side, thats why all the dentists run outa the room when they x-ray your teeth

[DeoxyriboNucleicAcid]

hmmmm, well a little unrelated, but if I have an outlet with a lot of appliances plugged into it, and it is kinda close to my head when I sleep, is it safe radiation wise. Could it cause brain cancer or damage after long term exposure??? If so, how else could this radiation affect you, and bacteria, (now im thinking up experiments )

[YT2095]

you`re from long island USA, the mains frequency is 60cps (Hz) there, you`re in no danger at all from EMR at those frequencies and power levels

you`re greatest danger would be that of presenting a potential fire hazzard if you overloaded it.

[Aegir]

You get exposed to more radiation by going to the beach than by getting an X-Ray. I dont think it make a huge difference if you get an X-Ray for you broken arm.

[NSX]

Yes, it's very well known and has been for decades. This is why doctors retire behind a lead screen when they x-ray you or leave the room and why you are given a lead apron to wear if you are having a limb x-rayed.

 

I've been meaning to ask someone that. Isn't Lead radioactive, or emit radiation as well?

[YT2095]

no dude, Lead is the end result after all radioactive decay has ceased, you`re close though, as it`s all in the same chain of decay

[NSX]

no dude, Lead is the end result after all radioactive decay has ceased, you`re close though, as it`s all in the same chain of decay

 

Oh, so Pb is initiallyl radioactive, then stops? And becomes this Pb used for X-Ray shielding?

[swansont]

Oh, so Pb is initiallyl radioactive, then stops? And becomes this Pb used for X-Ray shielding?

 

No, the isotopes of lead that are used are generally not radioactive. That would kinda defeat the purpose of using it as shielding.

 

Heavier elements which are radioactive eventually end up as an isotope of lead via the alpha and beta minus decays that occur along the decay chain. Once they become a stable isotope of lead, they stop decaying (by definition, stable isotopes don't decay)

[YT2095]

when a radioactive element such as Uranium decays, it goes through many stages, and becomes different elements also radioactive, they then decay and become a new radioactive element and so on right the way down to the only stable non radioactive element, that being Lead

 

lead is never radioactive, that`s where the buck stops, so to speak

[Dave]

All radioactive materials tend to decay towards lead because lead has the largest binding energy per nucleon (I think - we did it in A-level physics and it's been at least 8 months since I looked at the curve )

[atinymonkey]

In the forties/fifties shoe shops in Britain used to have x-ray machines for measuring the size of feet. My parents tell me of how they used to play with it when they were waiting for their parents. This is before the implications of x-ray exposure were fully understood.

 

I've had my feet x-rayed in one of those machines. Gets the whole picture as it were, and so long as you have stopped growing the x-ray gives an accurate picture for decades. If you do a lot of sports, it's worth the X-ray risk as it's weighed against damage you could do to your feet with the wrong type of shoe. Wasn't in a shoe shop tho.

[swansont]

All radioactive materials tend to decay towards lead because lead has the largest binding energy per nucleon (I think - we did it in A-level physics and it's been at least 8 months since I looked at the curve )

 

The peak is near iron, at about 60 nucleons. Heavy elements decay toward iron, they just stop at lead. Lead has a filled shell of protons (82) and one isotope also has a filled shell of neutrons (126), which helps explain why it ceases to be energetically favorable at that point. And if you can't release energy, it won't happen spontaneously.

[swansont]

lead is never radioactive, that`s where the buck stops, so to speak

 

Well, not quite. There are radiactive isotopes of lead, and I think some decay chains go through these. But they beta decay to Bismuth and then to Polonium before alpha decaying to a different isotope of lead. Eventually it ends up as a stable isotope of lead.

[YT2095]

yeah like Pb212 and Pb208 in the Thorium decay chain and Pb209 from the Neptunium decay chain, I agree, but for the sake of keeping it simple with regard to X-Ray sheilding, it can be taken as read that the lead it quite radioactively inert as most lead isotopes have a half life of only a few mins

[Guest Krystal]

Hi Many years ago between 1973 and 1974 As a teenager I worked in a private shoe shop in the Northeast of England. I worked mainly in the childrens department and used one of these x-ray machines (I believe it was called a pediscope) to look at peoples feet many times a day, day in and day out! Sometimes I used to look at my own feet too. (The machine was very old then and looked like it belonged in a museum.)

 

No one ever informed me of any danger and the older staff said the machine was ok because it was lead lined. However many years later I now work as a nurse and when I told one of the young radiologists about this machine and he was horrified. He did not seem to know of the existance of such a machine so could not offer me any advice.

 

I now have health problems and wonder If they could be attributed to the use of this machine and any radiation that I was exposed to. If there are any experts out there with knowledge of these machines I would be grateful for your advice.