Radiation and Your Health

Key points

  • Electromagnetic radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space at the speed of light.
  • Electromagnetic radiation has an electric field and a magnetic field associated with it and has wave-like properties.
  • You could also call electromagnetic radiation “electromagnetic waves."
Radiation dose illustration

What it is

A diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum ranging from lower energy in green to higher energy in red.
There is a wide range of electromagnetic radiation in nature. Visible light is one example.

Radiation with the highest energy includes forms like far ultraviolet radiation, x-rays, and gamma rays. X-rays and gamma rays have a lot of energy. When they interact with atoms, they can remove electrons and cause the atom to become ionized.

Keep Reading: The Electromagnetic Spectrum: An Overview

Categories

The radioactive atom

  • Radioactive atoms have unstable blends of protons and neutrons.
  • Radioactivity is the spontaneous release of energy from an unstable atom to get to a more stable state.
  • Ionizing radiation is the energy that comes out of a radioactive atom.
  • Radioactive isotopes are radioactive atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons.
Keep Reading: The Radioactive Atom: An Overview

Properties of radioactive isotopes

  • Radioactive atoms can give off four types of ionizing radiation: alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, and neutrons.
  • Each type of radiation has different properties. Their properties affect how we can detect it and how it can affect us.
  • An unstable atom changes into a more stable atom of the same or different element by giving off radiation. This process is called radioactive decay.
  • A half-life is the length of time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms in a group of radioactive isotopes to decay.
Keep Reading: Properties of Radioactive Isotopes: An Overview

Preventing exposure

The guiding principle of radiation safety is "ALARA." ALARA stands for "as low as reasonably achievable."

ALARA means avoiding exposure to radiation that does not have a direct benefit to you, even if the dose is small. To do this, you can use three basic protective measures in radiation safety: time, distance, and shielding.

Keep Reading: Guidelines for ALARA – As Low As Reasonably Achievable
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