Lord Lilley
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(1 year, 11 months ago)
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Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
At the moment, the answer is both.
Lord Lilley (Con)
My Lords, the British Dental Association has written to all of us saying that X-rays carry a small risk of possible long-term physical harm and that the risk is cumulative and successive exposures increase the risk, which means that each exposure over a lifetime must be clinically justified. Over my lifetime I have had more than 20 X-rays from dentists and have never been warned of this cumulative risk. Can my noble friend explain why the BDA is so worried about a single X-ray of someone claiming asylum who looks 22, especially when the BDA says that it can tell the age to within four years with 95% accuracy? So it might well show that someone was younger than they looked and be to their benefit.
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
I entirely agree with my noble friend that it is an unusual position for the BDA to adopt.