ArticleDose-response : a publication of International Hormesis Society
Death of the ALARA Radiation Protection Principle as Used in the Medical Sector.
Article in Dose-response : a publication of International Hormesis Society. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Dental Radiophobia: A Narrative Review of Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Public Health Consequences of Dental Radiography Fear in the Community - With a Focus on Both Patient and Clinician-Level Fear.Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dentistry · 2026Review
- Article
- Communicating radiation risk in healthcare: an ethical imperative amidst scientific uncertainty.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- SADiff: A Sinogram-Aware Diffusion Model for Low-Dose CT Image Denoising.Journal of imaging informatics in medicine · 2025Article
- Principles of radiological protection and application of ALARA, ALADA, and ALADAIP: a critical review.Brazilian oral research · 2025Review
- Defining standards for fluoroscopy in gastrointestinal endoscopy using Delphi methodology.Endoscopy international open · 2024Article
- Sagittal Full-Spine vs. Sectional Cervical Lateral Radiographs: Are the Measurements of Cervical Alignment Interchangeable?Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Differentiating Viral from Bacterial Pneumonia in Children: The Diagnostic Role of Lung Ultrasound-A Prospective Observational Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Improving the risk management process in quality management systems of higher education.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Tiny Lungs, Big Differences: Navigating the Varied COVID-19 Landscape in Neonates vs. Infants via Biomarkers and Lung Ultrasound.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Differentiation of pheochromocytoma and adrenal lipoid adenoma by radiomics: are enhanced CT scanning images necessary?Frontiers in oncology · 2024Article
- Evaluating the effect of amalgam fillings on caries detection in cone-beam computed tomography images.Dental research journal · 2024Article
- The why, who, how, and what of communicating CT radiation risks to patients and healthcare providers.Abdominal radiology (New York) · 2023Review
- Optimal timing of a γH2AX analysis to predict cellular lethal damage in cultured tumor cell lines after exposure to diagnostic and therapeutic radiation doses.Journal of radiation research · 2023Article
- Examining Clinical Opinion and Experience Regarding Utilization of Plain Radiography of the Spine: Evidence from Surveying the Chiropractic Profession.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Re-establishing the cervical lordosis after whiplash: a Chiropractic BiophysicsJournal of physical therapy science · 2023Article
- The Assessment of COVID-19 Pneumonia in Neonates: Observed by Lung Ultrasound Technique and Correlated with Biomarkers and Symptoms.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
ALARA is the acronym for "As Low As Reasonably Achievable." It is a radiation protection concept borne from the linear no-threshold (LNT) hypothesis. There are no valid data today supporting the use of LNT in the low-dose range, so dose as a surrogate for risk in radiological imaging is not appropriate, and therefore, the use of the ALARA concept is obsolete. Continued use of an outdated and erroneous principle unnecessarily constrains medical professionals attempting to deliver high-quality care to patients by leading to a reluctance by doctors to order images, a resistance from patients/parents to receive images, subquality images, repeated imaging, increased radiation exposures, the stifling of low-dose radiation research and treatment, and the propagation of radiophobia and continued endorsement of ALARA by regulatory bodies. All these factors result from the fear of radiogenic cancer, many years in the future, that will not occur. It has been established that the dose threshold for leukemia is higher than previously thought. A low-dose radiation exposure from medical imaging will likely upregulate the body's adaptive protection systems leading to the prevention of future cancers. The ALARA principle, as used as a radiation protection principle throughout medicine, is scientifically defunct and should be abandoned.
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