Be Cautious About Radiation!

First of all (before I get carried away) what is radiation? The word radiation comes from the Latin word radiatio, "ray of light." Radiation is a process where energy travels through space as high-particles or waves from the atoms of a radioactive material. Know that there are two sources of radiation---nature and man-made. Natural radiation comes from the Sun, from the element radon in the air, from the Earth's rocks/soil and from outer space. These sources contribute to 82% of the public's exposure annually. But since radiation is relatively harmless in small amounts, you'd think that living in an area with higher amounts like Han, China; Kerala, India; or Araxa-Tapira, Brazil would increase your chance of getting cancer. However, there is no evidence that can prove this... Man-made radiation is radiation artificially created by people! It is usually used in communications, industry, research and medicine, and can be found in nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. Approximately half of all cancer patients receive radiation therapy during their lifetimes. The radiation therapy uses radiation with high amounts of energy in order to kill cancerous cells by damaging their DNA, but it can affect normal cells too. That's why professionals in any field involving radiation use take great caution when using it, because if misused...there could be harmful consequences!

Ionizing vs. Non-Ionizing Radiation

Another distinctive factor of radiation is whether it is ionizing, or non-ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing is potentially less harmful than the latter because radiation of this type has less energy than ionizing and can cause molecules to move in an atom but it cannot remove electrons. Types of non-ionizing radiation include radio-waves, microwaves, radar waves, infrared waves, electromagnetic radiation, visible light and UV light. Ionizing, on the other hand, has the ability to create ions by removing electrons from an atom. (For those of you who haven't taken physics, here's a great explanation of atoms, molecules and ions.) Most ionizing radiation comes from radioactive materials and x-ray machines, and includes alpha radiation, beta radiation, neutron radiation, gamma radiation and x-rays. Yes, I've never heard of those kinds either, but the important part is that these types are potentially more dangerous because they contain higher amounts of energy particles than that of non-ionizing radiation and prolonged exposure can lead to radiation sickness. All kinds of ionizing radiation can endanger living things, while most nonionizing radiations cannot because they lack the amount of energy necessary. Yet, still, large amounts of any radiation can be harmful.

Before I continue on to the health risks, were you wondering how visible light is radiation? This is the only type of electromagnetic radiation that we can actually see. Visible light waves are what we see as the colors of rainbow. Cool, right? This is a nice article from NASA explaining the visible light spectrum and other types of electromagnetic radiation.

Remember, there are different types of radiation. The level of risk depends on the sort of radiation you're exposed to and how long. When you see all those scientists in movies wearing lead shields, aprons and whatnot, it's because there's no happy ending in taking a risk with radiation. To determine the amount of radiation exposure, you have to know the strength of the radiated energy, the distance between you and its source and the amount of time it takes for the initial signs and symptoms of radiation sickness occur.

There are two units that measure radiation absorbance-rem and Gy. In the medical field, the term Gy is used to describe the dose an exposed patient has absorbed. Some diagnostic tests, especially those that use x-rays, contain less than 0.1 Gy of radiation. When someone shows the signs/symptoms of radiation sickness, it immediately shows that the person's dosage is 1 Gy or higher. If your exposure is above 6 Gy, you're in trouble. At that level of exposure, your condition is untreatable and you may die within two weeks.

If you experience severe symptoms very quickly post-exposure, you probably are within the range of fatality on the exposure scale. First, in any radiation sickness patient, nausea and vomiting occur. After this, there may be a brief amount of time where you experience no new symptoms of an apparent illness. It's when this period ends, however, when the serious symptoms come into play. Someone whose health is in jeopardy should expect diarrhea, fever, and headache in the next 2 hours after initial symptoms. Immediately after: dizziness, disorientation, weakness, fatigue, hair loss, bloody vomit/stools, infection, poor wound healing (due to low platelets), low blood pressure, low white blood cell count and finally death occurs. Don't worry, though! This sad ending only happens if the patient has a very severe exposure of 8-10 Gy or higher.

Have any thoughts/comments/suggestions? Here are two discussion questions to think about and answer below or in your head.

1) UV light from the Sun causes sunburn, and eventually skin cancer. But these two processes aren't related. How come sunburn doesn't lead to skin cancer? How does skin cancer develop from UV light exposure?

2) One of radiation's most significant effects (in my opinion) is the potential damage that can be done to an exposed person's genes. Since radiation has the power to cause biological and chemical changes in living tissue, exposure can cause mutations in your DNA that can possibly pass down harmful traits to your offspring. Know any examples?