 The greatest radiation exposure risk comes not from Fukushima fallout or the polonium naturally found in seafood, but from doctors. This was the study that really shook things up. Estimated risks of radiation-induced fatal cancer from pediatric CAT scans, which concluded that the best available risk estimates suggest that pediatric CT scans will result in significantly increased lifetime cancer risk. How increased? Well, in the United States, of the approximately 600,000 abdominal ahead CT scans annually performed in children under the age of 15, 500 of these individuals might ultimately not just get cancer, but die from cancer attributable to that CAT scan radiation. In response to this revelation, the editor-in-chief of the leading radiology journal admitted that radiologists may have not been watching out for children. These estimates were based on data from Japanese atomic bomb survivors, in terms of how many cancer deaths one can expect from what kind of radiation dose. But there's never been a study actually documenting the excess cancers until now. Turns out the X-rays released by CAT scanners might be twice as carcinogenic as the high-energy gamma rays released from the atomic bombs. A few CT scans may nearly triple the risk of brain tumors in leukemia in children. Other studies are being performed around the world to quantify the risk and should be out in the next few years. Until then, what can we do? Well, first of all, we should only get X-rays when absolutely necessary. Good evidence suggests that between a fifth and a half of CAT scans aren't necessary at all. They could be replaced with another type of imaging, or just not done, period. That's a lot of added cancer risk for no added benefit. Now, this kind of CAT scan, okay, but this kind carries risk. The risk of developing cancer. After a single CT scan may be as high as 1 in 100 for a baby girl. It can take years for cancer to develop, so that's why the risk is lower in the elderly since they have fewer years to live. The diagnostic medical radiation dealt out in one year is estimated to cause 2,800 breast cancers among women in the United States, and 25,000 or so other cancers. That's doctors causing cancer. One chest CT scan is like getting 400 chest X-rays, and a stress test heart scan can be like getting over 1,000 X-rays. Doctors need to communicate the risks of these procedures. For example, the risk of a chest CT is like the risk of having a car crash during 2,500 miles of highway driving, or of smoking 700 cigarettes. You pick up a pack of cigarettes, and there's a warning label, right? But then you go in for a thallium heart scan, and no one minds telling you that the risk corresponds to smoking 1,400 cigarettes. One in every 270 middle-aged women that get an angiogram may get cancer because of that one test. The best way to avoid the risks of radiation scans is the same way to best avoid the risks of medication. Living and eating healthy enough to help avoid the need for them in the first place.