Quote:
Originally Posted by Diva
So there's a lot of talk about radiation....and thyroid issues....and iodine tablets......
But what about the rest of one's body? How does radiation affect THAT?
Just curious.....cuz I'm thinking that thyroid cancer may just be a drop in the bucket compared to other things which high doses of radiation can jerk around!
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Diva:
Actually thyroid cancer IS just a drop in the bucket. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. I will try to explain why radiation is dangerous.
So, the first thing to keep in mind is that radiation is just another name for 'light'. What we call visible light is just a middle part of the spectrum of electromagnetic frequencies (which I'll call EMF from here out). The spectrum runs from (in ascending order of frequency) radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma ray. As you move up the scale the wavelength gets shorter and the energy of the photon (and ALL of these are just photons at different levels of energy) increases. Radio waves are kind of leisurely, poking along photons, X-ray and gamma rays are very fast-paced, energetic photons. Because your body is made of atoms, the higher energy frequencies can actually move with enough energy that they can penetrate your body and begin disrupting the atoms.
What happens is that a fast moving photon can strip an electron from an atom, thus changing the atom into an ion. It's still an atom but while most atoms in your body have a neutral charge because there's an equal number of protons (positive charge) and electrons (negative charge) an ion has a net positive or negative charge because there are more of one than the other. (Obviously, if there are more protons then the charge is positive and if more electrons then negative.) This can cause all kinds of problems because the atoms become chemically reactive in ways they may not be.
Radiation effects living cells so it causes the following kinds of problems*:
1) Cells undergo DNA damage, cannot repair the damage, and undergo cell death.
2) Cells undergo DNA damage, cannot repair the damage, don't *die* and the damage is then passed on to further cell divisions. This can lead to cancers of various sorts.
3) Cells undergo DNA damage, cannot repair it, don't die, errors of either replication or transcription are passed on leading to cancers or mimicking the effects of aging.
Different types of radioactive isotopes** have different characteristics. So, for instance, Strontium attacks bones causing problems with the marrow. Other isotopes attack the internal organs, other attack the skin, etc. If these isotopes get inside the body they can wreak havoc. The really nasty stuff (Cesium, Plutonium, Strontium) also have very long half-lives (the amount of time it takes for a given quantity of an element to lose half its mass) so they tend to *stay* in the body.
This all sounds very grim and it is. However, the news is not ALL bad. There are three types of radioactive particles that concern us--alpha, beta and gamma particles. Alpha and beta particles can be stopped by ordinary substances--like clothing. Gamma particles, on the other hand, are SO energetic that protection needs to be from a material with a high atomic number*** like lead. Unfortunately, lead is inconveniently heavy.
* This is not exhaustive
** (an isotope is when an atom has the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons which lead to slightly lighter or heavier versions of the atom in question)
*** Every atom has an atomic number equal to the number of protons in the nucleus. Each element on the periodic table has a unique number of protons. The isotopes of each element is because of the differing number of neutrons in the nucleus of the atom. The higher the atomic number, the heavier the element. Lead has 82 protons, for instance, carbon (which makes up most of your body) has 6 protons so lead is heavier than carbon.
Hopefully this helps.
Cheers
Aj