An advisory committee to the British government has called for private health clinics to immediately stop offering whole body scans to the "worried well", because they carry too great a radiation risk.
Comare, a committee which studies radiation risk says CT scans were contributing significantly to the radiation exposure of the population
Computed axial tomography (CAT or CT scans) use multiple X-ray images to build up a picture of deformity, damage or disease inside the body.
But experts say the benefit has to be balanced against the possible harm of the radiation dose.
People pay hundreds of pounds for private screening, which can involve a whole range of scans and tests to pick up potential problems and offer "peace of mind" to people who may not be suffering from any symptoms but who would like assurance that they have little to worry about.
Fifteen percent of exposure to radiation is thought to come from medical sources, almost half of that from CT scans.
Many doctors believe that while CT scans may be justified for patients who have symptoms and are suspected of having disease or are in a high risk group, a radiation dose that may be 50 to 500 times the equivalent of an ordinary chest X-ray is not always justified for people who appear to be well.
Professor Alex Elliott, chairman of Comare says there is concern about the increasing exposure, as in the U.S. the average exposure to medical radiation exceeded that of exposure to background radiation in the environment for the first time last year, and trends in the U.S., are often repeated in the UK.
Professor Elliott, says if current trends continue there may rise of cancers due to medical exposure.
According to the report a typical CT scan carries a 1 in 2,000 lifetime risk of developing a fatal cancer; the natural risk is one in four.
Apart from the cancer risk people may also be alarmed unnecessarily when the scan picks up something which later proves not to be a problem.