The Boot

In most parts of the U.S., doctors can do nothing about the haphazard use of X-ray fitting machines in shoe stores (TIME, Sept. 19) except denounce it as dangerous. But in Washington last week the District of Columbia's Commission on Medical Licensure tried a neat trick: it banned use of the machines except by licensed operators--and no shoe-store clerk could qualify for a medical operator's license.

In a ten-second exposure to the average machine, the commission estimated, a child might get as much as ten roentgens of radiation. "That's just ten too many for a useless exposure," said Dr. Daniel L. Seckinger, District health officer. For normal feet, the authorities considered the machines useless; for abnormal feet they may still be used--by a licensed doctor.

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