Smarter CT scanning of kids would prevent 3,020 cancers each year (in the US)
▻http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ct-scans-children-cancer-20130610,0,5037992.story
Children’s growing bodies are particularly sensitive to ionizing radiation. In addition, they have more years ahead of them, giving damaged DNA more opportunity to develop into cancer.
Extrapolating their data to the entire country, the researchers estimated that 4.25 million CT scans are performed on children each year, and those scans will result in 4,870 cancers down the line. In girls, about two-thirds of those cancers would be cases of leukemia or tumors in the breast, thyroid or lung. In boys, about half would be cases of leukemia or cancers of the brain, lung and colon.