Table of contents:
- What is radiation?
- The radiation hazard to humans depends on this factor
- Source of radiation
- The number of doses of radiation received by the body
- Duration of exposure
The talk about radiation that is rarely done causes misunderstandings about this. Some people say that exposure to small doses of radiation has no effect on the body. However, some other people said differently. How exactly is the danger of radiation to the human body?
What is radiation?
Radiation is energy released, either in the form of waves or particles. Based on the electric charge that will be generated after hitting a certain object, radiation is divided into ionic radiation and non-ionic radiation.
We may encounter non-ionic radiation more often around us, such as radio waves, microwaves (microwaves), infrared, visible light and ultraviolet light. While the ionic radiation group includes X-rays (CT-can), gamma rays, cosmic rays, beta, alpha and neutrons.
Radiation hazards are usually more commonly found in ionic radiation types, because of their nature that will give an electrically charged substance to the object it strikes. This condition will usually have an effect, especially if the object is a living thing.
The radiation hazard to humans depends on this factor
The smallest constituent of the body of a living being is the cell. When the cell interacts with ionic radiation, the energy from the radiation will be absorbed into the cell and can cause chemical changes in the molecules contained in the cell. These chemical changes can lead to other genetic disorders. The dangers of radiation to the human body itself vary, depending on:
Source of radiation
Exposure originating from cosmic rays is usually negligible, because before it reaches the body of living things, this radiation has already interacted with the Earth's atmosphere.
Neutron radiation is usually found only in nuclear reactons. Whereas beta radiation is only able to penetrate thin paper, as well as alpha radiation which is only able to penetrate a few millimeters of air. However, X-rays and gamma rays, apart from being around humans, are dangerous if they are successful in exposure to living things.
It can also be distinguished by the radiation you receive when you go through the machine scan the body at an airport (which is lower intensity), with the radiation you receive when you live near an area that has experienced a nuclear event, because of the different types of radiation.
The number of doses of radiation received by the body
At low doses, the body's cells that are exposed to radiation are still able to restore themselves in a relatively short time. Cells that are damaged will only die and be replaced by new cells.
But at high doses, the damaged cells will multiply to become cancer cells (especially if your lifestyle supports exposure to cancer such as smoking behavior, consumption of carcinogen-prone foods, and so on).
Duration of exposure
Exposure to high doses of radiation for one time or in the short term will also cause some symptoms (called acute radiation syndrome) in your body such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, weakness to fainting, hair loss, skin flushing, itching, swelling to burning, pain to convulsions. This symptom will certainly be different if you are exposed to it for a long time.
Sometimes a person's body sensitivity also affects the impact of radiation exposure on a person's body. For example, 400 rem of gamma radiation will cause death to a person if exposed to two different times, with a span of 30 days. However, the same dose will not even have any effect if we are exposed for one year in smaller evenly distributed doses.
