A House subcommittee was told by witnesses, including representatives of virtually all of the leading professional groups in medical radiation, whatever was being done to ensure that radiation overdose does not happen with patients was not enough.

Radiation oncologists, therapists, researchers, radiologists, medical physicists and equipment manufacturers stated that a detailed and more modified method of overseeing medical radiation was needed.

Frank Pallone Jr., the New Jersey Democrat who is the chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on health, said that he was shocked with the fact that a license for operating radiologic devices was needed in many states.

James Parks, who lost his son Scott Jerome-Parks, 43, due to a radiation overdose at a New York City hospital gave the discussion an emotional coating.

The House panel and the witnesses however emphasized that their aim was not to scare patients as medical radiation was safe.

Dr Eric E. Klein, a professor of radiation oncology at Washington University and a medical physicist, said, “Thousands of hospitals and private treatment facilities all over the country have purchased I. M. R. T. machinery, often for competitive purposes and, far too often, without properly trained staff in place.”

Given the dangers of too much radiation, Dr Smith-Bindman said, “It is important that the lowest possible dose be given.”