What is radiation, please i need a detailed answer read everything below?
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Lauren
what is it? what can it do to you? use small words. i looked this up on wikipedia and it was like an ap physics class. Its like radio waves that affect someone or somthin like that right? im so confused. is it contagious? its on the news how japanese workers got infected with low levels of radiation and had to be like un-radiatized. like what? i feel stoopid. educate me. when i hear radiation all i think of is like these burnt ppl. tell me:
1) what harm it can cause to a person (BE EXTREMLY SPECIFIC)
2) is it contagious?
3) what are the diff levels of it and what do diff levels of radiation do to you?
4)how do you get rid of it?
5) how do you get it? why does it come after big disasters, what causes it? does it seep into your skin? do you feel radiation some inside of you?
HELP. THANKYAA.
Answer
1.) Radiation comes in 4 major forms:
-High Energy Neutrons: these are the neutrons within atoms that are responsible for chain reactions in fission. This is not an issue unless you're sitting on a reactor, or you've been hit with a nuclear weapon.
-Alpha radiation: VERY dangerous, and when converting to the unit called a "Sievert" which takes into account a 'Quality Factor' (Q) for radiation's effects on humans, alpha emitters have a Q factor of 20. In other words, if you get one "click" on a Geiger counter, it's 20 for you. The upside here is that it can penetrate VERY little, and is rapidly absorbed. If on the other hand, you breath in particles or eat them, you're in a lot of trouble Polonium 210 is a strong Alpha emiter... remember Alexander Litvinenko? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko
-Beta: This is responsible for "decay heat", but for your question lets ignore this as an issue for humans.
-Gamma: This is your mom and dad's radiation, it's basically light with an attitude. Gamma radiation has a quality factor of 1, but it's the radiation you need to be far away form, or in a lead casket to avoid. Gamma is used in radiotherapy (radiation for cancer), for that very reason, and it's the radiation behind most radio-imaging (not MRI).
What damage does this do? Well, that's not an easy question, because it depends on the dose you receive, and whether or not you got it all once or in "bits" over time (fractionated dose).
-REM: This is an older unit, and stands for "Radiation Equivalent Man". This was an attempt to measure radiation vs. the human body, and usually you're exposed to Milli(one thousandth of a) REMs. 500 REM in a single dose is generally considered lethal.
-Sieverts (Sv): This is what we'll be using from here on in: you take your REM or Grays and use the Q factor to multiply the dose by. Wikipedia has an excellent table describing the effects of various doses over time.
What does all of this do to a person? Well, these are forms of radiation that are "ionizing", which means that it can 'knock' your DNA about, and do other unfortunate things. The result can be cancer in the long term, but acute doses kill cells. First, cells which rapidly divide such as the lining of mucous membranes (your mouth, entire GI tract, hair follicles) die. This is why at doses of 1-2+ Sv you have hair loss, vomiting and nausea.
Unfortunately, another major system which depends on rapidly dividing cells is your bone marrow, and immune system. Exhaustion due to anemia (lack of red blood cells) is common, as are bleeding disorders. Your body breaks down at the cellular level, and the medical intervention is supportive. I could go on, but if you read the Wikipedia link I gave and some more, you'll get it all.
2.) NO.
Well...
A.)Alpha emitter (you've been hearing about isotopes of Iodine and Cesium, right?) can be mixed with dust and debris and land on you, or be inhaled or ingested. The treatment is to lose the cloths and be decontaminated with rough scrubbing, soap and water.
B.) In the case of radiotherapy which uses embedded gamma emitters (say, for thyroid cancer) CAN cause some exposure for others, but it doesn't "stick" to them.
3.) This is where that link comes it, it lists just that in order.
1 Sievert over the period of a year is not known to be risky, but may increase the chances of cancer later in life. 1-2 Sv in a single dose causes nausea, vomiting, hair loss and other issue in about half of those exposed.3-6 Sv is new territory, and without medical care you're likely to die.
Again, check the link for details. Remember also that such studies are limited to a handful of accidents and guesses, hence the wide range of %'s for illness.
4.) You can't, you can only prevent exposure, except in the case of Alpha emitters, which must be scrubbed and removed.
5.) Light is a form of radiation in the Electromagnetic Spectrum, but this comes back to that term "Ionizing" radiation. The more energy (and therefore shorter wavelength) EM radiation, the more it's likely to 'knock' electrons out of their orbits in your cells, DNA etc... which is bad. This is why there is concern over UV light, but not IR.
The Sun, radioactive elements in the ground such as Radon, radioactive forms of the noble gasses are always with us. You don't feel anything, and it's gamma so it doesn't seep, it just passes through you or is absorbed.
Again, I would read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation
1.) Radiation comes in 4 major forms:
-High Energy Neutrons: these are the neutrons within atoms that are responsible for chain reactions in fission. This is not an issue unless you're sitting on a reactor, or you've been hit with a nuclear weapon.
-Alpha radiation: VERY dangerous, and when converting to the unit called a "Sievert" which takes into account a 'Quality Factor' (Q) for radiation's effects on humans, alpha emitters have a Q factor of 20. In other words, if you get one "click" on a Geiger counter, it's 20 for you. The upside here is that it can penetrate VERY little, and is rapidly absorbed. If on the other hand, you breath in particles or eat them, you're in a lot of trouble Polonium 210 is a strong Alpha emiter... remember Alexander Litvinenko? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko
-Beta: This is responsible for "decay heat", but for your question lets ignore this as an issue for humans.
-Gamma: This is your mom and dad's radiation, it's basically light with an attitude. Gamma radiation has a quality factor of 1, but it's the radiation you need to be far away form, or in a lead casket to avoid. Gamma is used in radiotherapy (radiation for cancer), for that very reason, and it's the radiation behind most radio-imaging (not MRI).
What damage does this do? Well, that's not an easy question, because it depends on the dose you receive, and whether or not you got it all once or in "bits" over time (fractionated dose).
-REM: This is an older unit, and stands for "Radiation Equivalent Man". This was an attempt to measure radiation vs. the human body, and usually you're exposed to Milli(one thousandth of a) REMs. 500 REM in a single dose is generally considered lethal.
-Sieverts (Sv): This is what we'll be using from here on in: you take your REM or Grays and use the Q factor to multiply the dose by. Wikipedia has an excellent table describing the effects of various doses over time.
What does all of this do to a person? Well, these are forms of radiation that are "ionizing", which means that it can 'knock' your DNA about, and do other unfortunate things. The result can be cancer in the long term, but acute doses kill cells. First, cells which rapidly divide such as the lining of mucous membranes (your mouth, entire GI tract, hair follicles) die. This is why at doses of 1-2+ Sv you have hair loss, vomiting and nausea.
Unfortunately, another major system which depends on rapidly dividing cells is your bone marrow, and immune system. Exhaustion due to anemia (lack of red blood cells) is common, as are bleeding disorders. Your body breaks down at the cellular level, and the medical intervention is supportive. I could go on, but if you read the Wikipedia link I gave and some more, you'll get it all.
2.) NO.
Well...
A.)Alpha emitter (you've been hearing about isotopes of Iodine and Cesium, right?) can be mixed with dust and debris and land on you, or be inhaled or ingested. The treatment is to lose the cloths and be decontaminated with rough scrubbing, soap and water.
B.) In the case of radiotherapy which uses embedded gamma emitters (say, for thyroid cancer) CAN cause some exposure for others, but it doesn't "stick" to them.
3.) This is where that link comes it, it lists just that in order.
1 Sievert over the period of a year is not known to be risky, but may increase the chances of cancer later in life. 1-2 Sv in a single dose causes nausea, vomiting, hair loss and other issue in about half of those exposed.3-6 Sv is new territory, and without medical care you're likely to die.
Again, check the link for details. Remember also that such studies are limited to a handful of accidents and guesses, hence the wide range of %'s for illness.
4.) You can't, you can only prevent exposure, except in the case of Alpha emitters, which must be scrubbed and removed.
5.) Light is a form of radiation in the Electromagnetic Spectrum, but this comes back to that term "Ionizing" radiation. The more energy (and therefore shorter wavelength) EM radiation, the more it's likely to 'knock' electrons out of their orbits in your cells, DNA etc... which is bad. This is why there is concern over UV light, but not IR.
The Sun, radioactive elements in the ground such as Radon, radioactive forms of the noble gasses are always with us. You don't feel anything, and it's gamma so it doesn't seep, it just passes through you or is absorbed.
Again, I would read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation
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