4 ms·

One is background radiation we co-evolved along with and the other is targeted toward my brain in an instant. But even if you're comparing mSv to mSv like it's

by elif 1y ago

One is background radiation we co-evolved along with and the other is targeted toward my brain in an instant. But even if you're comparing mSv to mSv like it's all the same, I'd rather take 33 hours of flight time per year. There is also a problem in dentistry with chasing ghosts that only exist in imaging and doing unnecessary work.

Night_Thastus 1y ago
Radiation is radiation. We didn't evolve to perfectly handle the exact amount of radiation we'd receive naturally, nor do we struggle with any deviation from that. (Of course, not much XRay makes it down to sea level, but still) XRay is pretty finessed at this point. It's an incredibly brief burst with as little power to it as feasible. It's not like ye olden days where people just blasted themselves with radiation not realizing the danger. The knowledge and tech is really sophisticated these days - it's as minimal as possible. And if you don't get any XRays done, will you then decide to do more flying? Do you really budget your radiation exposure that closely? I'd be way more worried about things like nearby coal plants - both in terms of radiation and other health effects. Or Radon in a basement. Or smoke from nearby wildfires. Almost anything else nearby is a bigger source of health risk than ocassional XRays. If we're looking at an individuals health over their life, the increase in detection (or even just earlier detection) of all sorts of health issues using Xrays vastly increases average life expectancy compared to the tiny cost of the XRays themselves. It's not even close to the same order of magnitude. I get that sometimes doctors or dentists do unnecessary imaging of all kinds, and that sucks. It's costly in terms of time and money. But I'd much rather that then the alternative.

4 ms·

One is background radiation we co-evolved along with and the other is targeted toward my brain in an instant. But even if you're comparing mSv to mSv like it's

by elif 1y ago

Night_Thastus 1y ago
Radiation is radiation. We didn't evolve to perfectly handle the exact amount of radiation we'd receive naturally, nor do we struggle with any deviation from that. (Of course, not much XRay makes it down to sea level, but still) XRay is pretty finessed at this point. It's an incredibly brief burst with as little power to it as feasible. It's not like ye olden days where people just blasted themselves with radiation not realizing the danger. The knowledge and tech is really sophisticated these days - it's as minimal as possible. And if you don't get any XRays done, will you then decide to do more flying? Do you really budget your radiation exposure that closely? I'd be way more worried about things like nearby coal plants - both in terms of radiation and other health effects. Or Radon in a basement. Or smoke from nearby wildfires. Almost anything else nearby is a bigger source of health risk than ocassional XRays. If we're looking at an individuals health over their life, the increase in detection (or even just earlier detection) of all sorts of health issues using Xrays vastly increases average life expectancy compared to the tiny cost of the XRays themselves. It's not even close to the same order of magnitude. I get that sometimes doctors or dentists do unnecessary imaging of all kinds, and that sucks. It's costly in terms of time and money. But I'd much rather that then the alternative.