Why radiation can be dangerous

Background radiation is all around us all the time. Most of it forms naturally from minerals. These radioactive minerals are in the ground, soil, water, and even our bodies. Background radiation can also come from outer space and the sun. Other sources are man-made, such as x-rays, radiation therapy to treat cancer, and electrical power lines.

Radiation has been around us throughout our evolution. So our bodies are designed to deal with the low levels we're exposed to every day. But too much radiation can damage tissues by changing cell structure and damaging DNA. This can cause serious health problems, including cancer. Being exposed to a lot of radiation over a short period of time, such as from a radiation emergency , can cause skin burns.

It may also lead to acute radiation syndrome ARS, or "radiation sickness". The symptoms of ARS include headache and diarrhea. They usually start within hours. Those symptoms will go away and the person will seem healthy for a little while. But then they will get sick again. How soon they get sick again, which symptoms they have, and how sick they get depends on the amount of radiation they received. In some cases, ARS causes death in the following days or weeks.

Exposure to low levels of radiation in the environment does not cause immediate health effects. But it can slightly increase your overall risk of cancer. Before they start treatment, health care professionals need to figure out how much radiation your body absorbed.

They will ask about your symptoms, do blood tests, and may use a device that measures radiation. They also try get more information about the exposure, such as what type of radiation it was, how far away you were from the source of the radiation, and how long you were exposed. Treatment focuses on reducing and treating infections, preventing dehydration , and treating injuries and burns.

Source: CDC. Learn more about cancer risk in the U. Population , also known as the Blue Book. EPA bases its regulatory limits and nonregulatory guidelines for public exposure to low level ionizing radiation on the linear no-threshold LNT model.

The LNT model assumes that the risk of cancer due to a low-dose exposure is proportional to dose, with no threshold. In other words, cutting the dose in half cuts the risk in half. The use of the LNT model for radiation protection purposes has been repeatedly recommended by authoritative scientific advisory bodies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

There is evidence to support LNT from laboratory data and from studies of cancer in people exposed to radiation. Understanding the type of radiation received, the way a person is exposed external vs.

The risk from exposure to a particular radionuclide radionuclide Radioactive forms of elements are called radionuclides. Radium, Cesium, and Strontium are examples of radionuclides. Learn more about alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays and x-rays.

Children and fetuses are especially sensitive to radiation exposure. The cells in children and fetuses divide rapidly, providing more opportunity for radiation to disrupt the process and cause cell damage. EPA considers differences in sensitivity due to age and sex when revising radiation protection standards. Environmental Protection Agency, Skip to main content.

Radiation Protection. Here, Uranium is decaying to Thorium. The number of protons in Uranium 92 is reduced to 90, making a new element- Thorium.

The two protons do not simply disappear however, the protons that are emitted are what alpha radiation consists of. Beta decay is the emission of a positron or electron from an atom, allowing the atom to obtain an optimal more stable number of protons and neutrons. When an atom has too many protons or neutrons such that it is unstable, it can transform a neutron into a proton or a proton into a neutron.

The particles emitted for these reactions to take place electrons, positrons are what accounts for the radiation. Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation, as opposed to alpha and beta radiation which are in the form of particles.

Gamma radiation is the highest energy radiation of the three types. Gamma rays are emitted from radioactive elements, but differ from alpha and beta decay in that it does not alter the number of protons or neutrons in the nucleus but instead has the effect of moving the nucleus from a higher to a lower energy state.

I'm glad you asked, radiation can come from many sources. Some of these sources are artificial, and some are natural. Let's go over a few of these sources. The image above gives a breakdown of the many sources that can expose humans to radiation.

Four major groups from which humans recieve doses of radiation include Radon, sources inside the human body, rocks and soil, and the sun. These are all natural sources. Other sources of radiation include medical diagnostic tools, nuclear medicine, and consumer products.

Radon is a chemical element. Its atomic number is It lies within the noble gas column on the periodic table, which means it is inert and nonreactive. Radium is, however, radioactive. Radon occurs as an intermediate decay product from uranium or thorium as they decay to lead. The half life of radon is about 3. This means that it takes about 3. Radon emits alpha particles, and is therefore ionizing radiation, and dangerous to human health.

Some of the elements that make up the human body have radioactive isotopes that can add to the amount of radiation you are exposed to while decaying inside your body.

Carbon and potassium are two of these elements. C14 has a half life of over 5, years while potassium has a half life of about 1. Potassium accounts for the majority of the radiation inside your body. There are three naturally occurring isotopes of potassium.

K39, K40, and K K40 decays to Ar40 by electron capture or positron emission Beta decay. You may be thinking- potassium The answer is yes. Like all organic material, bananas contain some radioactive isotopes of potassium. In fact, in order to come up with a unit that could easily be used to understand the severity of a radiation dose, the 'banana equivalent dose was introduced. Now, it is important to recognize that eating one banana For every 1 grams of potassium, about 31 atoms will decay per second.

Each banana contains about. We already discussed that radon, a dense gas that is radioactive naturally occurs in soils. This is due to the fact that Uranium and thorium, other radioactive elements also occur naturally in soils. Some parts of the world naturally have higher concentrations of these elements in soils than others. It is important to remember that this is not from any kind of human contamination.

Just like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon or hydrogen, Uranium and thorium are elements that were present in the nebular cloud that eventually formed the solar system and our earth.