Health e-Tips
'You may remember a particularly disturbing e-Tip I wrote earlier this year ("Skip the CT scan for a radiation-free alternative," 1/6/2010). In it, I told you about the discovery that CT scans could bring on thousands of new cancers. Why?
It turned out that the radiation dose from common CT scans is much higher and more variable than anyone previously thought. Not particularly surprising to e-Tips and Nutrition & Healing readers, I'm sure. But it sure had the mainstream scrambling to do damage control.
The American College of Radiology launched an attack on the two studies that showed the danger, of course. But the damage was done. It was out there. Could the story get any worse than a common medical procedure (about 70 million scans every year) raising the risk of cancer?
Well, it just did...
Because someone knew about the risk. A big someone. Guess who?
The FDA.
A group of scientists, after a year of keeping the story under wraps, are finally breaking the silence. They say government experts brought urgent warnings to the FDA, warnings about a link between CT scan radiation (which packs a radiation punch equivalent to that of about 400 chest x-rays) and cancer.
And the FDA, they say, simply brushed the warnings off.
This is pretty serious stuff. By ignoring the advice of these experts, the FDA may have put hundreds of people in danger for absolutely no reason.
In many ways, it all comes down to process. The FDA has made a habit of approving radiological devices without much oversight. They say the devices demonstrate improvements over older ones, and don't need clinical trials or extensive review.
That's right. Devices used on tens of millions of people. Given the green light by an agency supposedly out there to protect us, without any proof of their safety.
Why? Well, as usual, you have to follow the money. Makers of CT scan machines put a lot of pressure for approval on the FDA. But is that any excuse?
And once again, we come up against the same old question -- the question that comes up every time we talk about the FDA.
How much is our health worth when weighed against the power, money, and pressure of Big Pharma and mainstream corporate health?
And once again, we get the sickening answer -- not very much at all, it seems.
Yours in good health,
Christine O'Brien
Related Post:
CT scansand cancer
Radiation dose from CTscans
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