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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 ...
Studies have been performed on the use of shortwave radiation for cancer therapy and promoting wound healing, with some success. However, at a sufficiently high energy level, shortwave energy can be harmful to human health, potentially causing damage to biological tissues, for example by overheating or inducing electrical currents. [28]
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.
The reported health effects are consistent with high doses of radiation, and comparable to the experiences of cancer patients undergoing radio-therapy [15] but have many other potential causes. [14] The effects included "metallic taste, erythema, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, deaths of pets, farm and wild animals, and damage to plants."
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]
Some effects of ionizing radiation on human health are stochastic, meaning that their probability of occurrence increases with dose, while the severity is independent of dose. [2] Radiation-induced cancer, teratogenesis, cognitive decline, and heart disease are all stochastic effects induced by ionizing radiation.
In most locations, the levels remained well below the levels required to damage human health, as the recommended annual maximum limit is well below the level that would affect human health. [188] [189] [190] Natural exposure varies from place to place but delivers a dose equivalent in the vicinity of 2.4 mSv/year, or about 0.3 μSv/h.
The application of radiation can aid the patient by providing doctors and other health care professionals with a medical diagnosis, but the exposure of the patient should be reasonably low enough to keep the statistical probability of cancers or sarcomas (stochastic effects) below an acceptable level, and to eliminate deterministic effects (e.g ...