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The risk of low dose radiation in medical imaging is unproven. It is difficult to establish risk due to low dose radiation. This is in part because there are other carcinogens in the environment, including smoking, chemicals, and pollutants. A common head CT has an effective dose of 2 mSv. This is comparable to the amount of background radiation a person is exposed to in 1 year. Background radiation is from naturally radioactive materials and cosmic radiation from space. The embryo and fetus are considered highly sensitive to radiation exposure. Complications from radiation exposure include malformation of internal organs, reduction of IQ, and cancer formation. The SI unit of exposure is the coulomb per kilogram , which has largely replaced the roentgen. One roentgen equals 0.000258 C/kg; an exposure of one coulomb per kilogram is equivalent to 3876 roentgens.

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