The following is an excerpt from the conclusions of the AIUM Bioeffects Committee on the safety of clinical Ultrasound made in 1987:

1. Widespread clinical use over 25 years has not established any adverse effect arising from exposure to diagnostic ultrasound.
2. Randomized clinical studies are the most rigorous method for assessing potential adverse effects of diagnostic ultrasound. Studies using this methodology show no evidence of any effect on birthweight in humans.

3. Other epidemiologic studies have shown no causal association of diagnostic ultrasound with any of the adverse fetal outcomes studies.

The AIUM statement on the Safety of Clinical Ultrasound released in 1982 and again in 1997:

" No confirmed biological effects on patients or instrument operators caused by exposure at intensities typical of present diagnostic ultrasound instruments have ever been reported. Although the possibility exists that such biological effects may be identified in the future, current data indicate that the benefits to patients of the prudent use of diagnostic ultrasound outweigh the risks, if any, that may be present. "

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A similar statement was released by the Australian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine in 1988:

" Diagnostic Ultrasound has been in clinical use since the late 1950's. To date the results of numerous follow-up studies on patients and children who had been examined before birth have failed to demonstrate any biological effect which could be attributed to the ultrasound examination.
Given the known benefits and demonstrated efficacy of the medical diagnosis, the Australian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine considers that the prudent use of diagnostic ultrasound far outweigh the risks, if any, that may be present. There is no reason to withhold the application of the technique when it is indicated on clinical grounds. "

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The following are excerpted from the Report of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK) Working Party on Ultrasound Screening for Fetal Abnormalities, October 1997 on the Safety of ultrasound in pregnancy:

".....The assessment of the safety of diagnostic ultrasound has been approached from two directions:

by searching for epidemiological evidence from populations who have been exposed
by studying the interactions of ultrasound with biological materials in laboratory environments and attempting to extrapolate the results to the real clinical case.
The difficulties with the epidemiological approach are in controls, dosimetry and end-points. The laboratory approach suffers predominantly from the problems associated with interpreting the data in a 'real' clinical context .... .
It appears that the reasons for the concern arose not from new epidemiological data but rather from trends in the characteristics of probes, their outputs and clinical use.