Can the radiation from a bone density machine be a cause of severe migraines?

Yes.

I’m assuming that bone-density tests are done using x-ray equipment. The radiation exposure from operating such a device, from behind the operator shield, shouldn’t be high enough to cause any health effects. Her employer should have her radiation exposure records (film badge,TLD dosimetry) to verify that there has been no exposure beyond occupational limits (I’m assuming this is in the US).The occupational radiation exposure limits are extremely low and conservative.

There may be other occupational factors involved with her migraines (contrast dyes, issues with the building environment, etc), but I lack expertise to comment on them.

Of course, not knowing how sensitive your wife is to the radiation from said test, no one should be advising you that this is not a possibility.

This is in the US. Mobile Alabama to be exact. She did this for one year 5 days a week. There was another woman who replaced her and left the jobforce because of migraines and now another woman wo is doing this is seeking treatment of migraines and asked my wife if she thought that it may be related. They were told that the radiation would not require the use if a detector badge. Through the migraines, the doctors did find an aneurysm behind her left eye. That has since been treated and that nuerosurgeon explained that the migraine symptoms were not aneurysm symptoms. We are just exploring this area to try to weed out what it isnt that is causing her migraines.

If she wasn’t required to wear dosimetry devices, then the machine is putting out such low radiation levels as to be exempt. This is not a standard x-ray machine then? I’m not familiar with the procedure she was performing and assumed that she was operating a standard diagnostic x-ray machine. I have training in radiation safety, but from a military and nuclear power standpoint. Assuming that the machine is operating properly (is it an x-ray machine or use a radioisotope source?), I don’t think radiation exposure is the issue. This “cluster” of symptoms around this workplace may be due to something else associated with the procedure or in the workplace itself. Is anyone else in that workplace, other than the machine operaors, experiencing these migraines?

@ethomas65 Sure sounds to me like everyone in her position is getting migraines. Perhaps the machine is broken!

@davidbetterman I didn’t say that it was impossible, only extremely unlikely and probably related to someting else in the work environment. Migraines are not a known symptom of overexposure to ionizing radiation.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Many things are unknown. This does not stop them from occurring.