When it comes to radiation, Hollywood is full of Baloneum Patients pick up some of their fears along with their popcorn at the movie theater By Bradley M. Tipler, M.D.

Some might argue with my choice of the word "phobia." But how often have you seen a pregnant woman who drives a car, smokes, and drinks, refuse an x-ray when she presents to the ER short of breath? Not only is she scared of "the risks," but so are most of the people taking care of her. Even radiology department personnel get anxious, often burying the patient in lead aprons. Why this unreasonable and persistent fear? I believe movies deserve the blame.

The first two "movies" featuring x-rays were released in 1897. Both were one-minute silent films. The British "X-rays" featured a couple courting on a park bench. Someone shines an x-ray on them and two skeletons are then seen courting. "Les Rayons Roentgen" has a client step in front of an x-ray; his skeleton steps out and then back in. The client then refuses to pay the operator and a fight ensues. People have always liked our charges.

Until the ’20s, radiation was generally used as a gimmick, allowing for site gags and surprises, not surprisingly, because early movies were little else. The idea of a story or plot arose only later. From the ’20s to the ’40s, the "death ray" and the mad scientist grew in popularity. The popular image of what kind of people work with radiation, what we do with it, and how radiation can affect your life was beginning to form. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go uphill from here.

In 1945 the first atom bombs were exploded. Among the many side effects, the public’s perception of science, scientists, and radiation would change forever. The late ’40s and ’50s saw an avalanche of radiation movies. Along with humans, just about every insect, animal, and dinosaur was magnified, shrunk, or mutated by radiation in the movies.

The ’50s and ’60s saw the rise of the radiation thriller, often featuring an evil scientist and the threat of a massive radiation event, which would "end the world as we know it." James Bond flicks and his imitators often use this story line.

While used before, the ’70s brought an onslaught of movies using radiation events to set the stage. A big nuclear war allows the moviemakers to create any kind of world they want. Also, since the ’70s, the theme that people who work with and control radiation cannot be trusted has blossomed. "The China Syndrome" is typical of this motif, and its coincidental release at the time of the Three Mile Island nonevent essentially ended the development of nuclear power in this country.

Cars kill 50,000 Americans a year, but we grew up seeing them glamorized in the movies. Fires kill 8000 people a year. Do we calculate the risk of matches by extrapolating from the effects on people who survived a napalm bomb? Since childhood you could mentally picture a pirate ship, the inside of a U-boat, cowboys fighting Indians and hundreds of other things you have never really seen–all thanks to the movies. Most Americans’ mental image of radiation is just as real and just as accurate, thanks to the movies.

DR. TIPLER is a private-practice radiologist in Staunton, VA. He can be reached by fax at 540/332-4491 or by e-mail at btipler@cfw.com.