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Asked by Amelie to Zoe V, nikrobinson, Michael S, Martin M, Marianne M, Hannah on 7 Mar 2024.
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Zoe Vance answered on 7 Mar 2024:
It depends a bit on the type of radiation, but high energy radiation like UV light or (much higher energy) gamma rays which are emitted from radioactive materials can damage DNA. When this happens your cells will try to fix the damage but often mistakes get introduced. Your DNA is basically the instructions for your cells to work so a lot of mistakes or serious damage to it will affect how well your cells can do their jobs. Cancer is a pretty common example, where your cells can’t tell how much they’re allowed to multiply any more and end up making tumours. So yes, exposure to radiation can definitely affect health and lifespan.
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Hannah Scholes answered on 8 Mar 2024:
Like Zoe said, it depends on the type of radiation. The high energy ones like UV or gamma rays can damage the DNA in your cells and introduce lots of little “spelling mistakes” in the instructions to make your cells. Sometimes these mistakes aren’t that harmful, and sometimes if there are lots of mistakes it can lead to things like cancer – which is why it’s important to wear your sunscreen!
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Nik Robinson answered on 8 Mar 2024:
Marie Curie found out about this to her cost. There was a recent film about her life, she researched the properties of radiation.
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Marianne Morris answered on 8 Mar 2024: last edited 8 Mar 2024 12:36 pm
We are all surrounded by radiation every day (background radiation), it is a natural process that occurs in minerals in the soil/rocks of the Earth, as well as cosmic radiation exposure from space. Only a very small % of exposure comes from human activities, which include medical procedures like x-rays.
When we talk about radiation being harmful to human health, it depends on many things like the type of radiation (alpha/beta/gamma), the strength of the radiation source, the distance from/time spent within the influence of a radiation source, and also the way radiation enters the body.
So there are many important factors to consider and improving one factor may reduce the impact of another.
It is certainly true that ionising radiation can be very harmful to our cells, but you have to be exposed to quite high levels of radiation (that most people would never normally encounter) before the risk of cancers starts to increase, and much higher levels of radiation where you would experience an acute response (radiation sickness) and may actually die as a direct result of exposure.I work with highly radioactive wastes a lot, however I have never in my 15 year career received a dose that is much above the normal background radiation levels. This is because we have very strict safety controls to ensure that people and the environment are kept safe from harmful materials like these. We use the 3 basic safety principles for minimising radiation exposure, which are to 1. maximise the distance between people and a radiation source, 2. minimise the time spent near radioactive sources, 3. position shielding materials (such as steel/concrete/lead) between people and radiation sources. The shielding absorbs most of the radiation emitted, thereby reducing the strength of the radiation to well below harmful levels by the time it reaches people.
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Martin McCoustra answered on 8 Mar 2024:
Yes…. but it depends on how much radiation and the type. I’m assuming you mean what’s called ionising radiation. Non-ionising radiation is generally safe though at high intensities like from lasers can be locally damaging.
An interesting question arises if you live in Cornwall or the North East of Scotland where there is lots of granite then you are exposed to higher levels of background ionising radiation than in the rest of the UK. I don’t think life expectancy in either of those regions is significantly shorter than average. However, if you we exposed to much more than background ionising radiation then it might cut your life short… especially if you got radiation sickness where very high amounts of ionising radiation seriously damage your body.
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Michael Schubert answered on 22 Mar 2024:
You’ve already had some excellent answers here! Certain types of radiation can damage your cells in different ways (for instance, some might cause cancer or make your DNA degrade so that the cells die); other kinds of radiation are pretty much harmless.
We try to make sure nobody gets too much exposure to the dangerous kinds of radiation in their lifetimes. This is why you don’t get X-rays or CT scans unless you really need them, and it’s why people who work with dangerous types of radiation have protective suits, detector tools or badges, and lots of safety protocols to keep them safe and monitor their exposure.
Comments
Sharron K commented on :
yes – chernobyl is a good example of this. a well contained radiation source is safe to work along side tho. there is more radiation in a banana that there is in my lab that contains 3 X-ray machines