Five Things to Know about Hazards of Radioactivity There are many factors to consider when saying “radioactivity is hazardous.” Here is an attempt to summarize them in five points. By Brett RosenbergMay 28, 2020 Radiation is not an age-old reality; in fact, the discovery of radiation is fairly recent. Becquerel, whose name is now used as a unit for an amount of radioactivity, discovered in 1896 that uranium salts were emitting energy. In the early 1900s, he discovered medical uses for radioactivity. Soon, scientists began studying the various uses radioactive elements including the medical field and industrial fields, like with radioluminescent dials and, of course, its potential as a weapon. Then came the first atomic bomb. We entered the atomic age in the 1940s following World War I, and the amount of research that was conducted in the decades to follow did not reach the public as quickly as the media. Godzilla in the 1950s, comic book characters like the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk in the 1960s, the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and the orphan radiotherapy source in Goiânia in 1987 all paint a gruesome picture of radioactivity: radiation causes mutations and horrible deaths. The assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 by a radioactive isotope of polonium further proves the point, right? Radiation is just like any other substance – the dose makes the poison. There is water all around you, but too much of it can kill you. There is a similar philosophy for medications in that too much of something will exceed a therapeutic dose and result in a lethal dose. We live in a sea of radioactivity, although some people receive more than others. People who live at higher altitudes receive higher doses from cosmic radiation, and those who live in areas with natural uranium deposits get higher doses from radon. Airline pilots receive even higher doses from cosmic radiation because there is less atmosphere shielding them. Miners have been evaluated for lung cancer because of their higher exposures to radon, although the prevalence of smoking among them complicates the evaluations. We have incorporated the use of radioactive americium in smoke detectors, tritium in exit signs and thorium in lantern mantles. There is uranium in the ceramic glaze of Fiestaware, and radioactive cesium in game meat because of fallout from weapons testing. Radiation, both natural and man-made, is everywhere, but we have not been able to observe adverse health effects at current regulatory levels. Let's block ads! (Why?)