Radiation Safety

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that it is next to impossible to avoid sources of natural radiation in our everyday life, but precautions can be taken to maintain distance from local sources of radiation and to use distance, time, and radiation-shielding as protection. The author points out that radiation is not responsible for the assumed mechanism of carcinogenesis caused by the exposure to magnetic fields. The paper relates that the nuclear industry and many other sources of radioactivity are used in an enormous range of industrial processes, such as industrial radiography, thickness gauges, smoke alarms, and medical diagnosis and treatment.

Table of Contents
Types and Sources of Ionising Radiation
The Effect of Radiation on the Body
Detecting Radiation
Regulating Body Standards and the Workplace
Ionizing Radiation
Contamination
Stochastic Effects
Deterministic Effects
Monitoring Radiation Exposure
Radiation Accidents
Types of Radiation Accident
The Food Industry Uses Radiation

From the Paper:

"Ionising radiation does not accumulate in our body, but science proves that the radiation effects are evident from exposure to large amounts of radiation, as in sunburns from too much exposure to strong sunlight. Radiation carries energy that has a damaging effect on the living cells of living things and can either kill them or change their structure and function to inhibit correct functioning but this would take large doses to kill a good number of cells to cause death. Radiation dose would have to be several thousand times bigger than the dose received annually from the environment to cause death. Death would occur if the person were exposed more over a year. For example, exposure to sunlight over a year gives one a suntan, but one-day exposure of sunbaking could cause death by sunstroke."

More papers on Radiation Safety:

• Essay # 68516 : "Industrial Hygiene Field Safety"
• Essay # 61695 : "Sun Safety Products"
• Term Paper # 109730 : "Protection From Radiation"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: