Radiation Exposure

[Mr Silver]

Its just occured to me the potential amount of Radiation thats lurking in any given developed area, we might actually "Absorb enough Radiation to guarantee our Grandchildren Glow in the Dark"

For years, many people thought that using Mobile (Cellular) Phones were a long term health hazard, sure theres some basis in it, but to absorb the amount of Radiation necesary to guarantee long term health effects, you'd need to make 8 hour calls on a daily basis

Medical Professionals are probably most at risk, hence why they leave the room during an X-Ray, heck even as a patient, they sometimes lay on a "Lead-Coated" vest just in case, I think this is mostly a Dentist thing as i've never had the pleasure of wearing one for the few Hospital X-Ray's i've had done

But in general i've just been thinking about the potential of "Radiation Poisoning" thats lurking here and there, we are all so reliant on Technology that in conjunction with not taking proper care in Sunlight we could all be putting ourselves at further risk

Off the top of my head, Everyday Technology that produces Radiation

*Microwave Ovens
*Computers (Safe Levels)
*Mobile Phones
*Televisions (Safe Levels since 1970's)
*Tanning Beds


Anyone got anymore and does anyone have any thoughts on the subject of Radiation Exposure?

 

[Sparky]

Don't forget TSA employee.

 

[Pingfah]

Where I live in Cornwall we have such high natural radon levels that a Nuclear Power Station could not be built here because the site would already exceed the legal levels of background radiation a nuclear site can produce, before it's even been built.

 

[Mr Silver]

Another point I forgot to mention, does "Burying Under Layers Of Reinforced Concrete" cut it these days as an effective measure of safely disposing of Radioactive Materials?

 

[Nardpuncher]

I'm pretty sure there are no deleterious effects to radiation, only beneficial ones such as the ability to mimic a spider's abilities and retractable claws and so forth.

 

[Mr Silver]

I'm pretty sure there are no deleterious effects to radiation, only beneficial ones such as the ability to mimic a spider's abilities and retractable claws and so forth.

If only...

Still its quite possible theres some basis in fact, mutations from long term exposure to Radiation are common, in the 1950-1960's an Anti Morning-Sickness pill that was made up from Radium (IIRC), caused various physical deformities among newborn children

 

[Pingfah]

^ You mean Thalidomide? I don't think that drug was based on Radium, or that the deformities were anything to do with radiation.

My old boss had a deformity of the foot due to his mother having taken Thalidomide.

 

[trekkiedane]

Off the top of my head, Everyday Technology that produces Radiation

*Microwave Ovens
*Computers (Safe Levels)
*Mobile Phones
*Televisions (Safe Levels since 1970's)
*Tanning Beds

It doesn't as much 'produce' radiation as subject it's users to it: air-travel! -in excess of 10 Km less atmosphere to shield you against radiation from space

On the same level can be found modern well insulated and not very well ventilated buildings where the natural occurring Radon is trapped inside instead of being dispersed in the atmosphere.

 

[Sparky]

Radiation is everywhere. We will just evolve to withstand it.

 

[trekkiedane]

in the 1950-1960's an Anti Morning-Sickness pill that was made up from Radium (IIRC), caused various physical deformities among newborn children

^ You mean Thalidomide? I don't think that drug was based on Radium, or that the deformities were anything to do with radiation.

Thalidomide side-effects were due to the fact that the process used to make it produced both the molecule with the desired effect and the mirrored molecule (an optical isomer), that carried all the bad effects; it was, indeed, this 'incident' that opened our eyes to this fact.

Radium was used up until the mid-twenties in a range of weird products: toothpaste, bread, chocolate... see this page for more ( ) products.

 

[Mr Silver]

Thalidomide! arrgh, sorry haven't been really alert this morning (well its morning here!)

I'm pretty sure Radium Products like the ones Julemand mentioned have caused deformities in some cases, also another point, In Japan after the fallout of Hiroshima, there were several cases of babies being born with disabilities, likely as a result of the mothers exposure to Radiation

 

[Chaos Descending]

Make sure that you understand the distinction between ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation. Not all radiation sources are equal when it comes to tallying up your risks due to long-term cumulative exposure.

 

[Satyrquaze]

I read somewhere recently that Wi-fi radiation is harmful to trees...

 

[Nowhere Man]

Its just occured to me the potential amount of Radiation thats lurking in any given developed area, we might actually "Absorb enough Radiation to guarantee our Grandchildren Glow in the Dark"

For years, many people thought that using Mobile (Cellular) Phones were a long term health hazard, sure theres some basis in it, but to absorb the amount of Radiation necesary to guarantee long term health effects, you'd need to make 8 hour calls on a daily basis

Medical Professionals are probably most at risk, hence why they leave the room during an X-Ray, heck even as a patient, they sometimes lay on a "Lead-Coated" vest just in case, I think this is mostly a Dentist thing as i've never had the pleasure of wearing one for the few Hospital X-Ray's i've had done

But in general i've just been thinking about the potential of "Radiation Poisoning" thats lurking here and there, we are all so reliant on Technology that in conjunction with not taking proper care in Sunlight we could all be putting ourselves at further risk

Off the top of my head, Everyday Technology that produces Radiation

*Microwave Ovens
*Computers (Safe Levels)
*Mobile Phones
*Televisions (Safe Levels since 1970's)
*Tanning Beds


Anyone got anymore and does anyone have any thoughts on the subject of Radiation Exposure?

Where you think cancer comes from?

 

[Subcommander R.]

Oh for the love of God, not more paranoia over radiation...

Radiation is naturally occurring. Standing outside will cause exposure.

Taking a plane gives you a lot of radiation exposure.

And x-rays? One chest x-ray will give you .0001 grays of exposure. It would have to be 30,000 times stronger to kill you.

 

[trekkiedane]

^While I don't know the fears of everyone else, but I don't think anyone is fearing "death by radiation" -it's the mutations that are dangerous; it only takes one mutation in one gene in one cell for you to develop cancer.

 

[Holdfast]

To use a bit of medical jargon, radiation is thought to obey a "Linear No Threshold" risk effect.

In other words, there is no threshold below which radiation is "safe" and no threshold beyond which it is suddenly becomes "dangerous". There is a progressively increasing level of risk as radiation exposure increases. The origins of the research into this model are actually based on Cold War fallout predictions, amusingly/chillingly enough. The idea was to be able to accurately predict the number of short-term and long-term deaths and mutations within any given radius caused by a nuke of a given kilotonnage, based on the range and quantity of ionising radiation released. You can see how that kind of information becomes important when working out how many nukes you need to wipe out life around Moscow or DC, given a certain loss percentage of nukes being intercepted.

These days, the model is still believed to apply: there is no safe limit, but statistically, there is an acceptable level of risk for a given person, over their lifetime. You can work backwards from that risk level, to work out the total upper limit of radiation one should be exposed to in a given year, to moderate the risk.

Whether the model is entirely accurate is debatable; you can see that since the model was designed for situations of relatively high radioactivity (post-nuke), its applicablity in more normal radiation ranges is questionable. Still, it remains what public health policy organisations still use (with some hedging) to determine risk.

The more important point is that radiation risk is stochastic in nature. LNT models predict AVERAGE risk, not individual risk.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Too many words. Hulk smash.

 

[thestrangequark]

Off the top of my head, Everyday Technology that produces Radiation

*Microwave Ovens
*Computers (Safe Levels)
*Mobile Phones
*Televisions (Safe Levels since 1970's)
*Tanning Beds

One must differentiate between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Microwaves, for example, produce non-ionizing radiation. They can't hurt you.

 

[Trekker4747]

Consider this. On the spectrum radiation from TV/Radio signals, cellphone signals and the radiation used in microwaves are all less powerful than light itself. So if your microwave or cell-phone can cause severe radiation so can the light from your lamp. The radiation generated from these common devices is mostly harmless. The waves are too large to damage DNA and cause cancer. Consider that the the entire planet has been saturated in EM radiation from radio and TV signals for somewhere around 80 years. If radiation from these devices were a problem then there'd be a pandemic. Cell-phones also have been around for something like 30 years and have been saturating the environment greatly for the last 10-15 years. Any problems from cell-phone "radiation" would've been seen by now as everyone would be effected.

All infra-red wavelengths of radiation (from electro magentism through visible light) is mostly harmless to people. Radiation from man-made devices isn't powerful enough or small enough to present any health risks.