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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.
The effect of gamma and other ionizing radiation on living tissue is more closely related to the amount of energy deposited in tissue rather than the ionisation of air, and replacement radiometric units and quantities for radiation protection have been defined and developed from 1953 onwards. These are:
The effect of non-ionizing forms of radiation on living tissue has only recently been studied. Nevertheless, different biological effects are observed for different types of non-ionizing radiation. [4] [6] Even "non-ionizing" radiation is capable of causing thermal-ionization if it deposits enough heat to raise temperatures to ionization energies.
Exposure can be from a source of radiation external to the human body or due to internal irradiation caused by the ingestion of radioactive contamination. Ionizing radiation is widely used in industry and medicine, and can present a significant health hazard by causing microscopic damage to living tissue.
Radiobiology (also known as radiation biology, and uncommonly as actinobiology) is a field of clinical and basic medical sciences that involves the study of the effects of ionizing radiation on living things, in particular health effects of radiation. Ionizing radiation is generally harmful and potentially lethal to living things but can have ...
The gamma rays emitted from radium 226, accounting for 4% of the radiation, are harmful to humans with sufficient exposure. Gamma rays are highly penetrating and some can pass through metals, so Geiger counters or a scintillation probe are used to measure gamma ray exposures when monitoring for NORM.
Dose equivalent calculates the effect of radiation on human tissue. [4] This is done using tissue weighting factor, which takes into account how each tissue in the body has different sensitivity to radiation. [4] The effective dose is the risk of radiation averaged over the entire body. [4] Ionizing radiation is known to cause cancer in humans. [4]
Ionizing radiation is used in a wide variety of fields such as medicine, nuclear power, research, and industrial manufacturing, but is a health hazard if proper measures against excessive exposure are not taken. Exposure to ionizing radiation causes cell damage to living tissue and organ damage.