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Cobalt therapy is the medical use of gamma rays from the radioisotope cobalt-60 to treat conditions such as cancer. Beginning in the 1950s, cobalt-60 was widely used in external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy) machines, which produced a beam of gamma rays which was directed into the patient's body to kill tumor tissue.
Cobalt-60 beam machine from 1951 Cobalt units use radiation from cobalt-60, which emits two gamma rays at energies of 1.17 and 1.33 MeV, a dichromatic beam with an average energy of 1.25 MeV. The role of the cobalt unit has largely been replaced by the linear accelerator, which can generate higher energy radiation.
Cobalt-60 (60 Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] : 39 It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors . Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisotopic and mononuclidic cobalt isotope 59
Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. [ 1 ] Symptoms can start within an hour of exposure, and can last for several months. [ 1 ][ 3 ][ 5 ] Early symptoms are ...
A radiation accident occurred in Samut Prakan Province, Thailand in January–February 2000. The accident happened when an insecurely stored unlicensed cobalt-60 radiation source was recovered by scrap metal collectors who, together with a scrapyard worker, subsequently dismantled the container, unknowingly exposing themselves and others nearby to ionizing radiation.
Between March and July 1962, a radiation incident in Mexico City occurred when a ten-year-old boy took home an industrial radiography source that was not contained in its proper shielding. Five individuals received significant doses of radiation from the 200- gigabecquerel cobalt-60 capsule, [1] four of whom died. [2]
Radiation exposure is a measure of the ionization of air due to ionizing radiation from photons. [1] It is defined as the electric charge freed by such radiation in a specified volume of air divided by the mass of that air. [1] As of 2007, "medical radiation exposure" was defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection as ...
Cobalt is a chemical element; it has symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, somewhat brittle, gray metal.