CHAPTER XVII

THE PATIENT AND THE

RADIATION HAZARD
Even before their acceptance as candidates for training most student
radiographers are aware that the radiations which they will handle have
the capacity to harm and that excessive exposure to them will damage
human tissue. Indeed this aspect of the work is one not only familiar to
those occupationally in contact with ionizing radiations, but also widely
known to the public at large. In many instances patients are sufficiently
aware of the harmful potential of X-radiation to become anxious and
alarmed if what appears a large number of radiographs has to be taken.

THE NATURE OF THE RISK

In diagnostic X-ray examinations we are not concerned with doses of
radiation within the 'excessive' category. To mention, as one instance, a
radiation effect of which the public generally is cognizant, we are unlikely
to produce sterility in a patient as a result of any diagnostic radiological
procedure. However, in recent years the attention of research workers
has been directed towards hazards which may be produced by low levels
of irradiation and which subjects undergoing diagnostic radiography may
well incur.
These risks are dual in nature. The first is genetic, that is it refers to the
possibility of undesirable effects upon a future generation, and it arises
because of the ability of X-rays — and some other radiations — to bring
about certain changes, known as mutations, in reproductive cells. Such
slight alteration in the reproductive cells of each of a large number of
subjects could lead to the existence of inherited defects in their descendants,
not immediately apparent in their children but becoming manifest in the
individuals of a far later generation.
In any population there is a certain mutation rate which is said to occur
naturally. It is thought at present that perceptible genetic damage would
occur if there were irradiation of the whole populace sufficient to raise
the natural mutation rate to twice its present level.
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