United States: A new study from Canada says that hot days and air pollution are making more people need X-rays and CT scans. The researchers found that on these hot days, the number of people needing these scans goes up by about 5%. Dr. Kate Hanneman, the lead researcher, says this extra need for scans could cost a lot of money over time. She’s a professor at the University of Toronto and studies medical imaging.
As reported by the HealthDay, “Although we found that the individual daily change is small, the total radiation dose from imaging studies is greater than previous estimates over the period,” Hanneman noted.
Her work was released by her team in the Radiology journal on 19th November.
As the researchers pointed out, the rising number of hot days as a direct consequence of climate change keeps more people experiencing health problems that would warrant a trip to local EDs. Many things what may be going wrong can be diagnosed through some tests such as X-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds an the list is endless.
Hanneman’s team focused in imaging use in four major hospitals in Toronto for the fiscal years 2013/14 through 2022/23.
Altogether, 1 665 859 scans were done during that period, 428 scans per day on average. The average number of patients attending emergency departments per day was 659.
The researchers found that on days when outdoor temperature was high and the level of particulate matter in the air was high X-ray rates at the hospitals increased by 5.1% and CT scan rates by 4%.
No such trend was seen for the rates of ultrasound, or MRI.
This was the case although air quality had generally increased over the study period, the Toronto team said in a journal news release.
The bottom line, according to Hanneman:” There is increasing evidence that global warming will lead to more frequent and more severe heat waves and other extreme weather events.” “Understand how it will affect our [emergency] departments will enable us to be prepare ahead.”