Why is radioactivity actually harmful?

Question

I'm not sure i understand why exactly I know about the differnt types of radiation and their uses but why are the actually harmful or helpful?

Answer 1

Gamma, UV, and Xrays are all waves with very short wavelengths. Theyre so tiny, when youre exposed to enough of it, they can knock the nucleotides in your DNA out of place, causing a mutation. When DNA regularly copies itself to make a new cell, it encounters a nucleotide sequence of DNA code that tells it to STOP COPYING. If this code is mutated or corrupted by some form of radiation, the DNA will have no way to know when to stop, and will continue copying and making cells at a rapid rate, developing a tumor, which grows, and grows. kinda scary. You dont get a lethal dose at the doctor though. A very small amount.

Answer 2

Think of radiation like a microwave oven. You are the hot dog in the microwave when you are exposed to it.

Medical radiation for pictures is not as harmful because the waves used are not the same frequency. However if you are exposed to it for too long it will have the same effect (that is why the lab people wear the heavy lead aprons or stand behind a thick wall).

Medical radiation is like using power level 1 on the microwave, takes a long time to cook the hot dog.

The nice thing about medical radiation is that it can be used to take x-rays and it can be focused to help attack cancer cells.

Answer 3

The SPECIFIC reason radiation is so harmful is the reason its called "ionizing radiation". The energy in radiation has the ability to knock the electrons off of the atoms in your body (cells, DNA, everything). This ionizes the atoms (turns them in to an ion, meaning they now have a net electric charge instead of being neutral). An ionized atom behaves much differently than a balanced atom, chemically reacting with other atoms in ways it would not before. Some ions will even go around trying to "steal" electrons from other atoms (what "free radicals" do) to balance themselves. This change in the chemistry of your body is what wreaks havoc on a large enough scale. The Xrays your doctor takes will do only a negligible amount of damage that your DNA and cells can repair. But with enough exposure, damage can become irreparable, cell membranes can disintegrate, DNA encoding can be messed up, any number of things all because of missing electrons!

Answer 4

Good question. Intense radiation can cause both short-term and long-term harm.

In the short term, radiated particles collide with cell membranes causing the cells to rupture and die. For low intensity radiation, like UV rays from the sun, this kind of damage results in sunburn and is limited to the surface of the body. At higher intensity, the particles keep going and cause the same kind of cell damage below the surface, to the internal organs and whatnot. Imagine having sunburn inside of your lungs or heart.

In the long term, a radiated particle could penetrate the cell membrane and cause damage to the nucleus of the cell, namely to the DNA. If you're lucky, this damage causes the cell to stop functioning and die. If you're not so lucky, the cell keeps working, but the DNA now contains an error. Maybe the error will turn out to be a mutation which will be beneficial to mankind, but it's more likely it will just turn out to be cancer.

The Human Genome Project discovered that something like 70% of a person's DNA is gibberish; random strings of amino acids that don't make up any genes at all. It could be -- and I'm just speculating -- that this junk DNA actually serves a purpose: to protect an organism from this kind of radiation. The more junk in your DNA, the less likely a stray particle will strike a vital bit of genetic code.

Answer 5

at the beginning, those are very uncommon and radioactive factors are accessible in basic terms in hint quantities, so they probable will not be able to injury you. There are various elementary the thank you to locate radioactivity, a Geiger Counter is a elementary one in use. I doubt you have one at abode, so possibly you ought to use an unused action picture. go away the rock pattern on nicely suited of the action picture in one day. strengthen the action picture and if there is something in it then the rock is probable radioactive. As for detecting arsenic, look on the link decrease than, that's extremely complicated. returned, that's got here across in basic terms in hint quantities and could probable not do any injury to the physique. to make beneficial, do not consume that rock pattern so which you will not get poisoned.

Answer 6

Low doses of radiation disrupt the functioning of the body's systems and cause changes to genetic material, leading to birth defects. Long-term exposure can cause cancer and other awful diseases. Higher levels of exposure can cause death in a matter of hours or less. Radiation can linger in the environment for a long time. The area around Chernobyl will never be fit for people to live in again.

Answer 7

Radioactive materials are made up with atoms that are unstable. They are tearing themselves apart, throwing off tiny bits continuously. Since were made up of soft material those tiny bits fly right through us. So when they bang into us they tear up our molecules. Some of our tissues are damaged more easily than others, so we get sick. Some times its certain organs, other times its our blood cells. It depends on how much and for how long. Other more denser items can stop the tiny pieces. Like lead, which is used to transport radioactive material.

Answer 8

Radioactivity emits harmful alpha, beta and gamma rays. In this alpha radiation is not very dangerous and can be stopped by the skin or dress. But beta and gamma radiations are extremely dangerous and can cause cancer and other diseases.

Answer 9

It can kill healthy cells with alpha and beta particles, but it also seems to kill cancerous cells with greater amount. So it can be useful when used properly in the right amounts, but can be deadly when used in higher levels all through the body.

Answer 10

it destroys cells, think of it as tiny bullets shooting at your body.