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Risks of X-Rays on Children

Is x-ray safe? Dr. Christopher Johnson says, "The answer, for chest, bone, and abdominal X-rays, is that they are very, very, very safe, but not totally risk-free." X-ray does expose a child's body to very small levels of radiation. Still take caution, because radiation builds up in the body over time and a child's cells are dividing quickly as they grow. Weigh the risks versus the benefits of an X-ray procedure.

  1. Cancer

    • Cancer is, simply, an uncontrolled growth of cells. Cancer is likely the most well-known risk factor from exposure to radiation, but the risk of getting cancer from an X-ray procedure is extremely rare. If a child receives 300 X-ray procedures in one year, it only increases that child's cancer risk by 1 percent. Having five CT scans in a year raises the chance of your child getting cancer by the same amount. If a seriously ill child needs many of these procedures, the cancer risk may increase; if a child gets one broken bone, the risk is insignificant.

    Cell Damage

    • Sometimes the electromagnetic radiation that passes through the body can cause damage to cells. Most of the time the cells die and, particularly in a growing child, the body quickly replaces them. The damage done to normal cells from an X-ray is much less than what your child would be exposed to by flying in an airplane. In rare cases, radiation can cause mutations in DNA that the body cannot fix, or the mutations can occur during the repair of cells.

    Reproductive Organ Damage

    • Too much radiation near reproductive organs can cause other ill effects, such as mutations to genes resulting in deformities in a child's future offspring. This can also cause pregnancy miscarriage later in life. If a child needs an X-ray, the radiologist should take plenty of time and care in shielding the parts of the child's body that don't need to be exposed--particularly reproductive organs--during the procedure.

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