Radiation exposure can cause cancer

When I was in Radio Shack waiting for my turn to be helped, like you often do at Radio Shack, I started chatting with the T-Mobile salesman for about his cell phone offerings.

I showed him the Verizon phone I’ve had for about five years and told him I wanted a smartphone, but wasn’t willing to pay $30 for Internet access.

He said T-Mobile offers a limited Web smartphone option for $10.

I told him I was a consumer writer and looking for a cell phone with low radiation emissions. Then, the Radio Shack clerk, who was cashiering, chimed in that the radiation from a cell phone is less than from a microwave oven.

I’m tired of people downplaying the dangers of radiation exposure, especially people who sell things to consumers.

I was pleased to read a newspaper article, “Health Care Providers Pledging Less Radiation,” that stated, “Too much radiation can cause cancer.”

It described the Image Wisely campaign, which encourages health care providers to use the least radiation necessary on patients for procedures.

Radiologists, medical physicists, technologists, and physicians are urged to take the pledge to image wisely for the health and safety of their patients.

Consumers also have a role to play by not requesting procedures that may not be necessary.

Image Wisely is an awareness program of the American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and American Society of Radiologic Technologists.

For more information on the link between cancer and radiation, see the Breast Cancer Fund’s “State of the Evidence 2010: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment.”