Mammograms do not expose women to Hiroshima-level radiation

A reduction in breast cancer deaths has been primarily attributed to mammography screening.

(Reuters) - Breast cancer screenings reduce deaths from breast cancer and have considerably lower radiation levels than nuclear or atomic bombs, contrary to claims circulating in a video on social media.

Dr Veronique Desaulniers, a bio-energetic chiropractor according to her LinkedIn profile, warns about the purported dangers of breast cancer screening in the clip posted on Instagram (here).

She says in the video: “If a woman follows the 10-year protocol of getting a mammogram every year or every six months, she is getting as much radiation as a woman had at Hiroshima, the atomic bomb, if she stood a mile away from the epicenter.”

However, this is false, according to breast imaging and radiation specialists who spoke to Reuters.

Edward Hendrick, a radiation and mammography expert and clinical professor at the University of Colorado, told Reuters that the radiation dose from Hiroshima was at least 600 times higher than that from 10 years of annual mammography screening.

Hendrick explains that the average dose to the whole body from a digital mammography exam is typically 0.36 millisieverts (mSv), referencing a 2020 paper he authored on radiation doses and cancer risks of digital breast screenings for cancer (doi.org/10.1093/jbi/wbaa016).

“A decade of annual mammography would yield a total radiation dose 10 times that: 3.6 mSv,” he adds. 

Citing a 1946 report here on the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing in Japan, which killed 140,000 people, Hendrik says the radiation dose one mile from the epicenter at Hiroshima was 625-703 times higher than 10 years of mammograms (2250-2530 mSv).

According to the American Cancer Society, the average total dose of radiation from a typical mammogram with two views of each breast is 0.4 mSv. The benefits of mammography outweigh harm from exposure to radiation, it says (here).

The International Atomic Energy Agency also states that a standard screening examination delivers a dose of between 3 and 5 mGy (0.3-0.5 mSv) to breast glandular tissue (here).

A reduction in breast cancer deaths has been primarily attributed to mammography screening and early breast cancer detection (here).

Daniel Kopans, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and founder of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Breast Imaging Division, told Reuters that the risk of radiation from mammograms is relative to age.

There is a radiation risk to the breasts of teenagers and women in their early 20s due to development, however, the risk drops rapidly as women age, according to Kopans.

He explains: “Risk drops rapidly so that by the age of 30, there is little or no increased risk.

“There is no measurable risk for women ages 40 and over, and even the extrapolated risk is lower than even a small benefit.”

Younger women are not routinely invited for breast screening in the United States (here).

Desaulniers did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

VERDICT

False. The radiation dose one mile from the epicenter at Hiroshima was 625-703 times higher than 10 years of mammograms (2250-2530 mSv).