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The women also experienced suppression of menstruation and sterility. [4] Although there were claims that the above conditions were caused by X rays the women received to investigate their health problems, the amount of radiation absorbed would be inconsequential compared to the amount they were exposed to daily at radium dial factories.
Thomson deliberately exposed a finger to an X-ray tube over a period of time and suffered pain, swelling, and blistering. [16] Other effects, including ultraviolet rays and ozone, were sometimes blamed for the damage, [17] and many physicians still claimed that there were no effects from X-ray exposure at all. [16]
Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. [5] They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay but may also be produced in other ways. Alpha particles are named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet, α.
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.
Alpha radiation has a very short range in tissues compared to beta or gamma radiation: around 2–10 cells. This reduces damage to surrounding healthy tissues, producing an even more localized effect than the beta-emitter strontium-89, also used to treat bone cancer. [17] Taking account of its preferential uptake by bone and the alpha particles ...
Relative biological effectiveness (RBE) quantifies the ability of radiation to cause certain biological effects, notably either cancer or cell-death, for equivalent radiation exposure. Alpha radiation has a high linear energy transfer (LET) coefficient, which is about one ionization of a molecule/atom for every angstrom of travel by the alpha ...
The effective dose is the risk of radiation averaged over the entire body. [4] Ionizing radiation is known to cause cancer in humans. [4] We know this from the Life Span Study, which followed survivors of the atomic bombing in Japan during World War 2. [5] [4] Over 100,000 individuals were followed for 50 years.
Unprotected experiments in the U.S. in 1896 with an early X-ray tube (Crookes tube), when the dangers of radiation were largely unknown.[1]The history of radiation protection begins at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with the realization that ionizing radiation from natural and artificial sources can have harmful effects on living organisms.