Biophysicist david brenner was in his 40s when an older colleague in New York City, a prominent pediatric radiologist, mentioned in conversation something Brenner couldn't shake: Far too many children, the pediatrician felt, were getting computed tomography (CT) scans for ailments, such as suspected appendicitis, that used to be diagnosed easily by ultrasound or even observation. Cells in children, already more vulnerable because they divide faster than those of adults, have more time to turn cancerous after the initial damage from radiation. And a single CT scan delivers a lot of it, the equivalent of dozens to a few hundred chest x-rays. A concern about the CT boom, planted 11 years ago, began to grow.
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