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Low levels of gamma rays cause a stochastic health risk, which for radiation dose assessment is defined as the probability of cancer induction and genetic damage.
The medical effects of the atomic bomb upon humans can be put into the four categories below, with the effects of larger thermonuclear weapons producing blast and thermal effects so large that there would be a negligible number of survivors close enough to the center of the blast who would experience prompt/acute radiation effects, which were observed after the 16 kiloton yield Hiroshima bomb ...
The most common health hazard of radiation is sunburn, which causes between approximately 100,000 and 1 million new skin cancers annually in the United States. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly ...
The relationship between radiation exposure and risk is both age- and sex-specific due to latency effects and differences in tissue types, sensitivities, and life spans between sexes. These relationships are estimated using the methods that are recommended by the NCRP [ 10 ] and more recent radiation epidemiology information [ 1 ] [ 20 ] [ 22 ]
Radiation damage is the effect of ionizing radiation on physical objects including non-living structural materials. It can be either detrimental or beneficial for materials. Radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiation on living things, including the health effects of radiation in humans.
Non-ionizing radiation is not a significant health risk. In contrast, ionizing radiation has a higher frequency and shorter wavelength than non-ionizing radiation, and can be a serious health hazard: exposure to it can cause burns, radiation sickness , many kinds of cancer , and genetic damage .
The level of health risk is dependent on duration and the type and strength of irradiation. Penetrating radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, neutrons or beta particles pose the greatest risk from an external source. Low penetrating radiation such as alpha particles have a low external risk due to the shielding effect of the top layers of skin.
Kerala's monazite sand (containing a third of the world's economically recoverable reserves of radioactive thorium) emits about 8 microsieverts per hour of gamma radiation, 80 times the dose rate equivalent in London, but a decade-long study of 69,985 residents published in Health Physics in 2009 "showed no excess cancer risk from exposure to ...