The Physicist's Viewpoint

There is no question that the government at all levels has the responsibility of protecting the public from hazards, both proven and implied. The impression which is often given is that government regulation is required in the field of radiology because the radiological community is not capable of, or inclined to assure, proper radiation protection of the patient and other individuals. This mistaken impression which was rampant in 1967, and which led to the passage of the Radiation for Health and Safety Law of 1968 (PL90-602) was in part due to the fact that most radiologists and physicists have been unwilling to lower patient dose at any cost - rather they have insisted that benefits not be reduced and that the risk-benefit ratio not be increased as a result of a decrease in dose. This, of course, should not be construed as a resistance to a decrease in dose, but rather as an effort to be certain that the proven values of x-ray usage not be compromised. It should be noted that since 1967, various government regulatory agencies have more realistically moved in the direction of evaluating both the risk and the benefit sides of the risk-benefit equation rather than the somewhat unilateral evaluation of only the risk which was prevalent in the '60s.© (1977) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.