Doctors say patients' lives will be at risk if EU enforces MRI rules

They say that about 300,000 procedures a year, including heart treatment and brain surgery, would be affected by the legislation, which seeks to restrict workers' exposure to electromagnetic fields. But experts claim there is no evidence that such exposure is harmful.

A group of 12 academics and professional representatives wrote to Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, yesterday calling on her to press for an amendment to the European Union directive. Their letter said the new regulations will severely limit opportunities for diagnosing serious conditions in children and would stop surgeons carrying out "interventional procedures", where they use scans while they are operating.

The regulations, set to be in place by 2008, will particularly restrict use of the most modern equipment that produces the clearest images because it emits at the highest frequency. Britain has been at the forefront of developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology.

A lead signatory to the letter, Professor Ian Young, OBE, who pioneered the world's first MRI scan of the head in 1978 and was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, said the new rules would "endanger patients".

He said there was no clear evidence that MRI equipment poses any real health risk to operators, but the restrictions will put patients at risk by denying them the most accurate diagnoses and effective treatments.

"If you start introducing arbitrary and stupid regulations such as this, you will force doctors to use less effective equipment or X-rays, which for children are a contraindication [exposure to X-ray radiation has been proven to carry health risks for children]."

The letter to Ms Hewitt was signed by industry experts and representatives, including the British Institute of Radiology, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine and Professor Sir Peter Mansfield, the joint winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

The authors of the EU directive acknowledge that "there is no conclusive scientific evidence establishing a causal relationship" between exposure to electro magnetic fields and long-term health problems. However, they say that Europe-wide legislation is necessary to create a level playing field and ensure that countries with stricter health and safety rules do not lose out.

Professor John Mallard, who headed the Aberdeen team that created the first whole-body scanner in 1980, also signed the letter. He said the new regulations were "overblown".

He continued: "There's a very limited amount of experimental data on the effects of magnetic fields and the changes on the body, and a lot more research is needed. I was exposed [to these scans] many times as a volunteer during the development and now, at 78, as a patient, and I have no concerns at all.

"I think this directive is overblown and will do more harm than good. It's very important that parliament does not rush into implementing it. They should sit back for a couple of years until more investigation has been done."

The calls for an amendment have also been supported by the Society of Radiographers, which represents more than 90 per cent of the diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers in the UK.

A spokeswoman for the organisation said: "Providing all the policies are adhered to, there is no evidence at all people using [this equipment] are at risk."

The new European regulations are part of a wider physical agents (EMF) directive aimed at limiting occupational exposure to electro-magnetic fields in all professions.

The directive will affect the use of MRI equipment because the frequency ranges of the electromagnetic fields emitted by the machinery - both when simply running and when in actual operation - will exceed the limits for exposure set by the new regulations.