Reducing patient dosage to levels which are as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP)
is both an ethical and legal requirement, falling under the Ionizing Radiation (Medical Exposure) regulations. There is a responsibility to reduce the long- term risks of radiation exposure (such as cancer reduction) to levels where the potential benefit of the examination outweighs the risk of any adverse effect. This is of particular importance in mammography, as the breast is a radio sensitive organ and mammography is currently the technique of choice for breast cancer screening, which results in a large number of disease-free women being imaged.