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Children’s Hospitals Cut Down On CT Scans to Prevent Cancer

Published

10 years ago

September 2, 2015

By Joe Satran, Huffington Post

When your children are sick, it’s hard not to want doctors to do everything in their power to cure them. But when it comes to CT scans, less is often more.

That’s because CT scanners — which use X-rays to produce richly detailed images of almost any part of the body — deliver far higher doses of dangerous ionizing radiation than any other commonly used medical imaging device. And children, for a host of reasons, are even more susceptible to the carcinogenicity of ionizing radiation than adults.

Scientists have, of course, understood the risks of ionizing radiation for nearly a century. For a couple of decades after the advent of CT scanners in the mid-1970s, though, doctors generally believed that CT scans delivered such a small dose of radiation that they didn’t endanger patients’ health. But a growing body of evidence shows this could be a mistaken belief.

Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman of the University of California-San Francisco, a leading expert on the effects of medical imaging, told The Huffington Post that research suggests just one CT scan can triple a child’s risk of developing some types of cancer. As many as 1 in 300 children who get a CT scan of the abdomen, chest or spine will eventually develop a tumor as a result of the radiation, she said.

“The doses used for CT are in the same range where we’ve seen direct evidence of harmful effects,” Smith-Bindman said. “The median dose that people got in Hiroshima was 40 millisieverts. And we find that those are doses that patients get all the time.”

The prevailing belief that CT scans were relatively harmless allowed their use to grow exponentially over the past couple of decades. Yet there are signs that children’s hospitals, at least, are starting to take the risks of CT scans into account and cut back on the imaging. A study published Aug. 24 in the journal Pediatrics found that the use of CT scans at children’s hospitals has dropped sharply over the past decade.

The study’s authors examined the medical records of about 150,000 children treated for the 10 conditions that most often call for CT scans at 33 children’s hospitals around the country in 2004 and 2012. (Focusing on specific conditions helped them ensure that the changes they observed weren’t the result of changes in the conditions that doctors were treating.) They found doctors became less likely to use CT scans in all 10 conditions, which included seizure, appendectomy and severe head trauma.

The drop was often quite steep. About 25 percent of children treated for seizures in 2004 got CT scans, but only 13.3 percent treated in 2012 did. The rate for abdominal pain declined from 37.7 percent in 2004 to 25.6 percent in 2012; for concussion, it dipped from 75.7 percent in 2004 to 62.8 percent in 2012.

The researchers found that in many cases, decreases in the use of CT scans were accompanied by increases in the use of ultrasounds and MRIs — neither of which exposes patients to ionizing radiation.

One of the authors, Dr. Michelle Parker of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, attributed this change to growing awareness of the risks of CT scans, which she said had encouraged doctors to consider alternatives more regularly.

“We are not advocating that all CT scans be replaced by other imaging modalities, or that doctors actively avoid them where they feel they are indicated,” Parker wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “However, this study suggests that physicians may be incorporating new research supporting other imaging choices to provide the safest care to patients by avoiding CT scans when possible.”

Smith-Bindman said doctors working in other medical environments, including general hospitals, have been slower to cut back on CT scans than those in children’s hospitals — which actually makes this research more valuable.

“It suggests that we can do better; we’ve shown we can do better at these hospitals,” she explained. “That’s really quite important, because it says that if you put effort into doing this, then it’s doable.

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Rest in Peace: A.M.E. Pastor and L.A Civil Rights Icon Cecil “Chip” Murray Passes

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94. “Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Published

4 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) in Los Angeles, died of natural causes April 6 at his Windsor Hills Home. He was 94.

“Today, we lost a giant. Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray dedicated his life to service, community, and putting God first in all things. I had the absolute honor of working with him, worshiping with him, and seeking his counsel,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of the dynamic religious leader whose ministry inspired and attracted millionaires as well as former gang bangers and people dealing with substance use disorder (SUD).

Murray oversaw the growth of FAME’s congregation from 250 members to 18,000.

“My heart is with the First AME congregation and community today as we reflect on a legacy that changed this city forever,” Bass continued.

Murray served as Senior Minister at FAME, the oldest Black congregation in the city, for 27 years. During that time, various dignitaries visited and he built strong relationships with political and civic leaders in the city and across the state, as well as a number of Hollywood figures. Several national political leaders also visited with Murray and his congregation at FAME, including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Murray, a Florida native and U.S. Air Force vet, attended Florida A&M University, where he majored in history, worked on the school newspaper and pledged Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He later attended Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles County, where he earned his doctorate in Divinity.

Murray is survived by his son Drew. His wife Bernadine, who was a committed member of the A.M.E. church and the daughter of his childhood pastor, died in 2013.

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Court Throws Out Law That Allowed Californians to Build Duplexes, Triplexes and RDUs on Their Properties

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional. Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

Published

4 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Charter cities in California won a lawsuit last week against the state that declared Senate Bill (SB) 9, a pro-housing bill, unconstitutional.

Passed in 2021, SB 9 is also known as the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency Act (HOME). That law permits up to four residential units — counting individual units of duplexes, triplexes and residential dwelling units (RDUs) – to be built on properties in neighborhoods that were previously zoned for only single-family homes.

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of the cities, pointing out that SB 9 discredited charter cities that were granted jurisdiction to create new governance systems and enact policy reforms. The court ruling affects 121 charter cities that have local constitutions.

Attorney Pam Lee represented five Southern California cities in the lawsuit against the state and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“This is a monumental victory for all charter cities in California,” Lee said.

However, general law cities are excluded from the court ruling as state housing laws still apply in residential areas.

Attorney General Bonta and his team are working to review the decision and consider all options that will protect SB 9 as a state law. Bonta said the law has helped provide affordable housing for residents in California.

“Our statewide housing shortage and affordability crisis requires collaboration, innovation, and a good faith effort by local governments to increase the housing supply,” Bonta said.

“SB9 is an important tool in this effort, and we’re going to make sure homeowners have the opportunity to utilize it,” he said.

Charter cities remain adamant that the state should refrain from making land-use decisions on their behalf. In the lawsuit, city representatives argued that SB 9 eliminates local authority to create single-family zoning districts and approve housing developments.

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Funds for Down Payments and Credit Repair Given to Black First Time Homebuyers

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) won a $10,000 fair housing settlement last November against a property management company, CIM Group LP, a global real estate company headquartered in Los Angeles, and property owner, RACR Sora, LLC, for implementing a blanket ban on renting to tenants with criminal histories at Sora Apartments in Inglewood. Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

Published

4 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By McKenzie Jackson, California Black Media

Three months earlier, the department, which enforces California’s civil rights laws, won another $20,000 civil rights settlement against a Lemon Grove property manager, who had targeted a Black tenant with a series of racist actions and threats of violence.

CRD Director Kevin Kish said the department investigates cases of apparent racial bias in housing and sometimes more subtle acts of prejudice like nuisance-free or crime-free housing policies or holding tenants to different standards based on their race.

Kish said, “People will get evicted if they call the police. This can negatively impact victims of domestic violence. We also see these no-crime ordinances, or no-crime policies, used in racially discriminatory ways. If there is some kind of incident, and the police are called and it involves a Black family, then they get evicted, but other folks aren’t necessarily evicted.”

On April 11,1968, a week after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, President Lydon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and nationality.

Kish noted that William Byron Rumford, the first Black California State Assemblymember, who represented Berkley and Oakland, spearheaded the passing of the Rumford Act in 1963. That law sought to end discriminatory housing practices in the Golden State, five years before the Fair Housing Act became law.
Real estate agent and housing advocate Ashley Garner is the director of the CLTRE Keeper Home Ownership program. That organization gave 25 Black, indigenous, and people of color $17,500 each in down payment and credit repair support to purchase a home in Oak Park, a traditionally Black neighborhood in Sacramento, last fall. CLTRE obtained a $500,000 grant from the city of Sacramento to award the funds to the residents after they completed an eight-week homeownership program.

In 2021, the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) noted that around four in 10 Black California families owned homes, which trails that of White, Asian-American and Latinos.
According to Forbes, the median price for a home in California is over $500,000, which is double the cost of a home in the rest of the country.

Black lawmakers recently introduced their Reparations Priority Bill Package that includes support for Black first-time homebuyers, homeowners’ mortgage assistance and property tax relief for neighborhoods restricted by historic redlining.

California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) spokesperson Eric Johnson said CalHFA helps prospective low-income and moderate-income Californians purchase homes by offering down payment and closing cost aid. “There are lots of people who have steady jobs, good credit scores, constant income, but they haven’t been able to save up the money that traditional banks need or want to see for a down payment,” Johnson stated. “We help those folks out. We give a loan for the down payment to get them over that hurdle.”
CRD and the Department of Real Estate hosted “Fair Housing Protections for People with Criminal Histories” Zoom call on April 10.

On April 25, CRD will also hold Zoom seminars focused on advocating for fair housing for people with disabilities.