Community News Archive
Scientists save MRI from inappropriate regulation
IOP
24 October 2007
After a concerted effort from scientific organisations such as the Institute of Physics (IOP) and the Royal College of Radiologists, the EU is no longer planning to impose draconian restrictions on the use of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners in European hospitals or research laboratories.
The EU’s Physical Agents Directive, which had been due to come into force next year, was going to place excessively low limits on the level of electromagnetic radiation that occupational physicians and researchers could be exposed to in the workplace.
IOP, the Royal College of Radiologists, the British Institute of Radiology, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and the British Chapter of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine all opposed the directive on the grounds that the research into negative effects of electromagnetic radiation, upon which the directive was based, was limited and based on theoretical speculation.
Press release
2005 memorandum to the Commons Science and Technology Committee
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