James Annan wrote:

>>> in the last year I learnt that Japan has by far the highest rate for
>>> cancer caused by excessive x-ray usage (2.9% of all cancers are
>>> attributable to this cause, which means 7,500 cases, compared
>>> to 0.6% in UK and 0.9% in the USA).

Ryan Ginstrom wrote:

>> I would like to see the source for this, please.

Raj Feridun  wrote:

> http://www.medinfo.ufl.edu/other/cameron/rads.html

That site suggests entirely the opposite, making the claim that "A-bomb
survivors who received a dose less than the equivalent of 60 years of
background showed no increase in the incidence of cancer. Survivors in that
dose range tended to be healthier than the unexposed Japanese. That is,
their death from all causes was lower than for the unexposed Japanese. The
improved health of those with low doses more than compensated for the
radiation induced cancer deaths so that A-bomb survivors as a group are
living longer on the average than the unexposed Japanese controls."

If that's correct we'd all do well to take up as many chances of being
x-rayed as possible.

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com (relaunched)