LESSON 8: RADIATION POLLUTION

Introduction
We cannot eliminate radiation from our environment. We can, however, reduce our risks by controlling our exposure to
it. Understanding radiation and radioactivity will help you make informed decisions about your exposure.

What is Radiation?
Radiation is energy that travels in the form of waves or high-speed particles. When we hear the word 'radiation', we
generally think of nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, or radiation treatments for cancer. We would also be correct
to add 'microwaves, radar, electrical power lines, cellular phones, and sunshine' to the list. There are many different
types of radiation that have a range of energy forming an electromagnetic spectrum.

However, we usually associate the word radiation more to those types of radiation used in nuclear power, nuclear
weapons, and medicine than the other types of radiation mentioned above.

Forms of Radiation
Radiation having a wide range of energies form the electromagnetic spectrum, which is illustrated on the below. The
spectrum has two major divisions: (1) non-ionizing radiation, and (2) ionizing radiation. The energy of the radiation
shown on the spectrum below increases from left to right as the frequency rises.

NON-IONIZING RADIATION

We take advantage of the properties of non-ionizing radiation for common

•microwave radiation- telecommunications and heating food

•infrared radiation-infrared lamps to keep food warm in restaurants
•radio waves-broadcasting

Non-ionizing radiation ranges from extremely low frequency radiation, shown on the far left through the audible,
microwave, and visible portions of the spectrum into the ultraviolet range.

•IONIZING RADIATION
Higher frequency ultraviolet radiation begins to have enough energy to break chemical bonds. Radiation in this range
has extremely high energy. It has enough energy to strip off electrons or, in the case of very high-energy radiation, break
up the nucleus of atoms. There are three main kinds of lonizing radiation:

• Alpha Particles, can be shielded by a sheet of paper or by human skin. However, if radionuclides that emit alpha
particles are inhaled, ingested, or enter your body through a cut in your skin, they can be very harmful.

• Beta Particles. cannot be stopped by a sheet of paper. Some can be stopped by human skin, but some need a thicker
shield (like wood) to stop them. Just like alpha particles, beta particles can also cause serious damage to your health if
they enter your body. For example, if ingested, some radionuclides that emit beta particles might be absorbed into your
bones and cause damage,

• Gamma and X-Rays. Gamma rays are the most penetrating of the three types of radiation listed here. Gamma rays will
penetrate paper, skin, wood, and other substances. To protect yourself from gamma rays, you need a shield at least as
thick as a concrete wall. This type of radiation causes severe damage to your internal organs. (X-rays fall into this
category, but they are less penetrating than gamma rays.)

How are people exposed to radiation?

There are three main routes of exposure or exposure pathways: (1) inhalation, (2) ingestion, and (3) direct exposure.

• Inhalation. Exposure by the inhalation pathway occurs when people breathe radioactive materials into the lungs. The
chief concerns are radioactively contaminated dust, smoke, or gaseous radionuclides such as radon. Radioactive
particles can lodge in the lungs and remain for a long time. Alpha and beta particles can transfer large amounts of
energy to surrounding tissue, damaging DNA or other cellular material. This damage can eventually lead to cancer or
other diseases and mutations.
• Ingestion. Exposure by the ingestion pathway occurs when someone swallows radioactive materials. Ingested
radionuclides can expose the entire digestive system. Some radionuclides can also be absorbed and expose the kidneys
and other organs, as well as the bones.
• Direct (External) Exposure. The third pathway of concern is direct or external exposure from radioactive material. The
concern about exposure to different kinds of radiation varies:
a. Limited concern about alpha particles. They cannot penetrate the outer layer of skin, but if you have any open
wounds, you may be at risk.
b. Greater concern about beta particles. They can burn the skin in some cases, or damage eyes.
C. Greatest concern. is about gamma radiation. Different radionuclides emit gamma rays of different strength, but
gamma rays can travel long distances and penetrate entirely through the body.

Gamma rays can be slowed by dense material (shielding), such as lead, and can be stopped if the material is thick
enough. Examples of shielding are containers; protective clothing, such as a lead apron; and soil covering buried
radioactive materials.

Sources of Radioactive Pollution

On average, 82% of radiation comes from natural sources and 18% from anthropogenic sources (i.e., those associated
with human activities). Natural sources include the sun, soil and rock, air, water, and even distant stars. The major
natural source of radiation is radon gas, which accounts for about 55% of the total radiation dose.

Anthropogenic sources include medical therapy such as x-ray machines, nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants,
television sets, luminous watches, and air travel. The principal anthropogenic sources of radioactivity are medical X-rays
and nuclear medicine. Radioactivity from the fallout of nuclear weapons testing and from nuclear power plants make up
less than 0.5% of the total radiation dose, i.e., less than 2 millirems. Although the contribution to the total human
radiation dose is extremely small, radioactive isotopes released during previous atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons
will remain in the atmosphere for the next 100 years.

Think about this! Coal- and oil-fired power plants, which release small amounts of radioactivity contained in their fuels,
are responsible for more airborne radioactive pollution in the United States than are nuclear power plants.

Effects of Radiation Exposure on Human Health

Although a dose of just 25 rems causes some detectable changes in blood, doses to near 100 rems usually have no
immediate harmful effects. Doses above 100 rems cause the first signs of radiation sickness including: (1) nausea, (2)
vomiting, (3) headache, and

(4) some loss of white blood cells.

Doses of 300 rems or more cause:
➤ Temporary hair loss, but also more significant internal harm, including damage to nerve cells and that line the
digestive tract
➤ Severe loss of white blood cells, which are the body's main defense against infection, makes radiation victims highly
vulnerable to disease.
➤ Radiation also reduces production of blood platelets, which aid blood clotting, so victims of radiation sickness are also
vulnerable to hemorrhaging

Half of all people exposed to 450 rems die, and doses of 800 rems or more are always fatal. Besides the symptoms
mentioned above, these people also suffer from fever and diarrhea. As of yet, there is no effective treatment-so death
occurs within two to fourteen days. In time, for survivors, diseases such as leukemia (cancer of the blood), lung cancer,
thyroid cancer, breast cancer, and cancers of other organs can appear due to the radiation received. The most sensitive
regions of the human body appear to be those which have many actively dividing cells, such as the skin, gonads,
intestine, and tissues that grow blood cells (spleen, bone marrow, lymph organs). Radioactivity is toxic because it forms
ions when it reacts with biological molecules. These ions can form free radicals, which damage proteins, membranes,
and nucleic acids. Radioactivity can damage DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) by destroying individual bases (particularly
thymine), by breaking single strands, by breaking double strands, by cross-linking different DNA strands, and by cross-
linking DNA and proteins. Damage to DNA can lead to cancers, birth defects, and even death. Sometimes the body fails
to repair mutations caused by exposure to radiation or even creates mutations during repair. The mutations can be
teratogenic or genetic.
• Teratogenic mutations result from the exposure of fetuses (unborn children) to radiation. They can include smaller
head or brain size, poorly formed eyes, abnormally slow growth, and mental retardation. Studies indicate that fetuses
are most sensitive between about eight to fifteen weeks after conception. They remain somewhat less sensitive
between six and twenty-five weeks old.

• Genetic effects are those that can be passed from parent to child. Health physicists estimate that about fifty severe
hereditary effects will occur in a group of one million live-born children whose parents were both exposed to one rem.
About one hundred twenty severe hereditary effects would occur in all descendants.

Below is a table showing levels/amounts of radiation and its health effects.

Exposure (rem) Health Effect Time to Onset (without treatment)

5-10 changes in blood chemistry hours

50 nausea
55 fatigue
70 vomiting
75 Hair loss 2-3 weeks
90 diarrhea
100 hemorrhage
400 Possible death Within 2 months
1,000 destruction of intestinal lining 1-2 weeks
internal
2,000 damage to central nervous system Minutes hours to days
loss of consciousness; and death

1. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki died not directly from the actual explosion,
but from the radiation released as a result of the explosion

For example, a fourteen-year-old boy was admitted to a Hiroshima hospital two days after the explosion,
suffering from a high fever and nausea. Nine days later his hair began to fall out. His supply of white blood cells
dropped lower and lower. On the seventeenth day he began to bleed from his nose, and on the twenty-first day
he died.

At Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the few surviving doctors observed symptoms of radiation sickness for the first time.
In his book Nagasaki 1945, Dr. Tatsuhiro Akizuki wrote of the puzzling, unknown disease, of symptoms that
"suddenly appeared in certain patients with no apparent injuries." Several days after the bombs exploded,
doctors learned that they were treating the effects of radiation exposure. "We were now able to label our
unknown adversary 'atomic disease' or 'radioactive contamination' among other names. But they were only
labels: we knew nothing about its cause or cure... Within seven to ten days after the A-bomb explosion, people
began to die in swift succession. They died of the burns that covered their bodies and of acute atomic disease.
Innumerable people who had been burnt turned a mulberry color, like worms, and died... The disease," wrote
Dr. Akizuki, "destroyed them little by little. As a doctor, I was forced to face the slow and certain deaths of my
patients."
Doctors and nurses had no idea of how their own bodies had been affected by radioactivity. Dr. Akizuki wrote,
"All of us suffered from diarrhea and a discharge of blood from the gums, but we kept this to ourselves. Each of
us thought: tomorrow it might be me... We became stricken with fear of the future." Dr. Akizuki survived, as did
several hundred thousand others in or near Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In fact, at least ten people who had fled
from Hiroshima to Nagasaki survived both bombs.

The survivors have suffered physically from cataracts, leukemia and other cancers, malformed offspring, and
premature aging, and also emotionally from social discrimination. Within a few months of the nuclear
explosions, leukemia began to appear among the survivors at an abnormally high rate. Some leukemia victims
were fetuses within their mothers' wombs when exposed to radiation. One child who was born two days after
the Hiroshima explosion eventually died of acute leukemia at the age of eighteen. The number of leukemia cases
has declined with time, but the incidence of lung cancer, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, and cancers of other
organs has increased among the survivors.

2. Three Mile Island. On a Wednesday morning, maintenance workers cleaning sludge from a small pipe blocked
the flow of water in the main feedwater system of a reactor at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The sift foreman heard "loud, thunderous noises, like a couple of freight trains," coming. Since the reactor was
still producing heat, it heated the blocked cooling water around its core hot enough to create enough pressure
to have popped a relief valve. Some 220 gallons of water per minute began flowing out of the reactor vessel.
Within five minutes after the main feedwater system failed, the reactor, deprived of all normal and emergency
sources of cooling water, and no longer able to use its enormous energy to generate electricity, gradually
started to tear itself apart.

The loss of coolant at the reactor continued for some 16 hours. Abort a third of the core melted down.
Radioactive water flowed through the stuck relief valve into an auxiliary

building, where it pooled on the floor. Radioactive gas was released into the atmosphere. An estimated 140,000
people were evacuated from the area. It took a month to stabilize the malfunctioning unit and safely shut it
down. The reactor was a total loss and the cleanup required years of repair and hundreds of millions of dollars.

No one was reported injured and the little radiation that leaked out was quickly dispersed. Although this
accident did cost lots of money and time, no one was hurt.

Chernobyl. A far more serious accident occurred at Chernobyl, in what was en still the Soviet Union, At the time
of the accident, the Chernobyl nuclear then power station consisted of four operating 1,000-megawatt power
obyl nucle without question, the accident at Chernobyl was the result of a fatal combination of ignorance and
complacency. "As members of a select scientific panel convened immediately after the... accident," writes Nobel
laureate Hans Bethe, "my colleagues and I established that the Chernobyl disaster tells us about the deficiencies
of the Soviet political and administrative system rather than about problems with nuclear power." Although the
problem at Chernobyl was relatively complex, it can basically be summarized as a mismanaged electrical
engineering experiment which resulted in the reactor exploding. The explosion was chemical, driven by gases
and steam generated by the core runaway, not by nuclear reactions. Flames, sparks, and chunks of burning
material were flying into the air above the unit. These were red-hot pieces of nuclear fuel and graphite. About
50 tons of nuclear fuel evaporated and were released by the explosion into the atmosphere. In addition, about
70 tons were ejected sideways from the periphery of the core. Some 50 tons of nuclear fuel and 800 tons of
reactor graphite remained in the reactor vault, where it formed a pit reminiscent of a volcanic crater as the
graphite still in the reactor had turned up completely in a few days after the explosion.
The resulting radioactive release was equivalent to ten Hiroshima. In fact, since the Hiroshima bomb was air-
burst-no part of the fireball touched the ground--the Chernobyl release polluted the countryside much more
than ten Hiroshima's would have done. Many people died from the explosion and even more from the effects of
the radiation later. Still today, people are dying from the radiation caused by the Chernobyl accident. The
estimated total number of deaths will be 16,000.

Medical Treatment
There is currently no effective medical treatment available for potentially fatal radiation doses. The case of the
Japanese boy mentioned above illustrates an important fact about radiation sickness. The boy had probably
received a dose of 450 rems or more, rems. yet his symptoms were about the same as those of a person who
received about 300. Medical science has no way of telling the difference between people who have received
fatal doses and will die despite all efforts and others who received less radiation and can be saved. Treatment
for the ones that can be saved includes blood transfusions and blood cells which was affected by the radiation.

Practical Measures in Minimizing Hazards Caused by Radiation

1. Consult doctors about the possibility of using your previous x-rays to

provide Information needed.

2, Avoid x-ray exposure when you are pregnant. Inform the doctor if you are and do not wait to be asked.

3. Request for a lead apron to be placed over your chest and lap when having dental x-rays.

4. Inquire if the x-ray machine and facilities have been inspected and set to minimize excess exposure.

5. Do not breathe or move when your x-ray is being taken to get the best results and to avoid repetition.

6. Only those parts of the body that are necessary for the examination should be expected; and

7. Reduce exposure of children to x-rays.

Radioactive pollution is an important environmental problem. It could become much worse if extreme vigilance
is not utilized in the handling and use of radioactive materials, and in the design and, operation of devices
emitting radiation.