Epa's Radiation Protection Program

Beginning with the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, a widespread belief has proliferated that all levels of ionizing radiation are dangerous. Since 1980, radiation hormesis studies have shown there is actually a threshold of danger with high level exposures, but below that threshold low dose radiation is essentially safe and quite possibly beneficial to life. Yet, this relatively new, seemingly contradictory understanding of radiation's health effects has gone essentially unknown to the general public. In order to grasp the reasons why, we must again return to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Secondary radiation is developed from any matter being hit by primary radiation. Secondary x-rays have less penetrating energy than primary radiation. Acute (short term) effects of radiation result from high doses of whole body radiation, 100 rads and above. Clinically, a person may experience a mild and transient illness to death. It may occur minutes, hours, or weeks after the exposure. The median lethal whole body dose for humans is 450 rads. Chronic (long-term) effects of radiation can arrive years after the original exposure. It also may have cumulative effects on the somatic cells over the lifetime of the patient. Future generations may experience genetic

The effects of EMR upon biological systems depend both upon the radiation's power and its frequency. For EMR of visible frequencies or lower the damage done to cells and other materials is determined mainly by power and caused primarily by heating effects from the combined energy transfer of many photons. By contrast, for ultraviolet and higher frequencies chemical materials and living cells can be further damaged beyond that done by simple heating, since individual photons of such high frequency have enough energy to cause direct molecular

Scientists had warned other scientists about the effects of the radiation on humans, but they ignored the forewarnings and still conducted the experiments. The people surrounding the plants took radiation in the worst and most inhumane way possible. Internal dosage of radiation is the most threatening. When a person inhales or swallows the radiation, the atoms can become part of the body, since some of the particles are chemically similar to the nutrients that the body stores. Once a part of the body, the particles emit point-blank radiation (76, Cheney).

Ionizing radiation is a form of radiation that can alter the structure of DNA molecules in living cells. It is a kind of energy produced by atoms that travels in form of electromagnetic waves. Sources of this form of energy are x-ray

The Beta travels faster and penetrates further than any other. Gamma rays are the most dangerous from all since the can travel further and damage tissues and organs. Radiation can be measured in doses such as the Roentgens and the Rem. Radiation in our planet can come from cosmic radiation, terrestrial sources, the body, or man-made sources such as diagnostic radiology and therapeutic radiology. When a person is exposed to radiation he/she can suffer from acute effects also known as effects that occur quickly or chronic effects which are known as long term effects. People can handle chronic exposure to radiation better than a large amount of radiation within a short period of time. People who have a been exposed to large amounts of radiation within a short period of time can become ill quickly such as in acute radiation sickness or could potentially die from such exposure. Exposure to radiation can cause illnesses such as cancer, cataracts, and could ultimately cause a reduction in life. America uses emergency managers to handle aspect of all emergencies posed to communities across the country. Emergency managers use The Radiological Protection System trains and aids communities when radiological emergencies occur. In the United

Radiation exposure limits is the amount of ionizing radiation stipulated by legislation in which an individual may be exposed according to accepted values by the scientific agencies (ENS 4). There are stipulated amounts of exposure that are set for different types of persons. The exposure limit should be reduced in order to reduce the prevalence of medical effects on humans.

population, however, one in nine are food insecure. Food security, defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security is “the condition in which all people, at all times, have physical, economic and social access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.” Developing countries are most at risk of food insecurity with Sub-Saharan Africa having the highest prevalence of hunger.

Due to some circumstances being out of our control, whether it is through natural means of toxicity from radiation or unnatural means of radiation, how do we protect ourselves? The Earth is covered in natural background radiation. Terrestrial, cosmic and radon radiation are all a part of our environment. Even if manmade radiation and nuclear radiation didn’t exist, we would still be exposed to toxic, unhealthy sources of biological changing substances. How do our bodies recover from an assault to our immune systems and resume a healthy life from ionizing radiation that can cause cancer? How do we become proactive, and responsible for our own health outcome? Can we eliminate from our bodies unwanted toxins, carcinogens, free radicals, and ionizing substances? Do we have control over our health after a large dose of radiation from a nuclear accident, or treatment from radiation therapy? Evidence shows that we do. Just as there are natural sources of radiation, there are natural ways to cleanse our bodies and use nutrition to detoxify, rejuvenate, and restore health when our immunity has been compromised from natural or unnatural sources of radiation.

In radiological protection it is important to shield areas that are susceptible to radiation with lead shielding, use of proper collimation, limiting time of exposure, keep the time of exposure as short as possible, increasing the distance of the source of radiation and the pregnant patient, using the ALARA principle (As low as reasonably achievable) and if possible the physician should determine if the examination can be delayed until after pregnancy. Also, proper equipment performance and calibration must be tested

For most living organisms, humans included, radiation is considered dangerous if it has the ability to ionize other molecules, as this damages the cells and molecules critical to survival. On the surface of the Earth, humans tend to experience radiation in the forms of alpha, beta, or gamma particles (8), or through ultraviolet waves. An alpha particle is a helium nucleus, consisting of two protons and two neutrons, a beta particle is an electron, and gamma particles are high energy and high speed energy packets (8).

radiation (the kind used in X-rays) is known to cause cancer at high doses, the risks of

In most nuclei of chemical elements is the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the number of neutrons in the nuclei of some elements , the number of neutrons is

This paper goes over radiation safety precautions and all the health risk dealing with radiation. I will discuss the discovery of radiation, non-iodizing and iodizing radiation, natural exposure to radiation, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma radiation and how they affect us. Also the paper will be going over radiation from human activities: underground miners, radiologists, medical

Different amounts of radiation have different effects on humans. Radiation that comes from the environment is not noticeably dangerous. Instruments that produce small amounts of radiation, like micro waves and televisions, do not give off harmful amounts of radiation. However, if one is exposed to small amounts of radiation over a long