US experts seek more oversight of medical radiation

The US government needs to establish national guidelines for controlling the amount of radiation a patient gets from diagnostic exams and treatments and the level of training required by a medical technician who delivers it, experts told a congressional panel on Friday. Radiation exposure from medical scans and treatments became a major concern for patients and lawmakers last fall after patients at hospitals in Los Angeles and Philadelphia were exposed to toxic levels of radiation. High doses of radiation can cause skin burns, cataracts and other injuries, and in extreme cases, cancer and death. With diagnostic exams, the concern has largely been excess radiation from CT or computed tomography, an advanced type of X-ray that delivers a much higher radiation dose than conventional X-rays. "Oversight for CT radiation dosing is currently very fragmented," Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco, told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health in Washington.