Why is the radioactive material not dangerous when a tracer is used in the human body?

Answer 1

All use of radioactive materials involves some risk. The way to reduce risk is to limit the length of time of exposure (and shield yourself and get distance between yourself and the radiation). The "tracers" used in medicine are usually excreted fairly rapidly or the radioactive half-life is short, so this satisfies the condition of limiting the time of exposure. The amount of radioactivity used in these medical diagnostic procedures is relatively low in most cases and generally poses very little danger as the radiation dose received is not much more than background radiation with which we live all the time.

Answer 2

The most common "tracer" is thallium-201, which is used in a nuclear stress test. The person gets an intravenous injection of thallium-201. Thallium-201 decays by electron capture. This means that the nucleus "captures" an electron from its own K-shell to react with a proton to form a neutron. So there is no emission of an electron, positron, or alpha particle. The product is a nucleus of mercury-201, which is born in an excited state and decays to ground by the emission of gamma rays. The test detects these gamma rays. So there is minimal danger or exposure to the person.

Answer 3

Anything radioactive poses some risk when used in the body. The point is to reduce your cumulative exposure from sources such as X rays, tracer scans and CAT scans, and leaky microwaves.

Answer 4

It is in fact dangerous but the danger is less compared to the benefit of using that small quantity of radioactive material. Radioactive Iodine for example is used to study thyroid disorders es. detection of nodules etc., which are difficult to detect using only the T3, T4 and TSH studies.

Answer 5

most isotopes occur naturally in nature and are not detrimental to health, like the tracers

Answer 6

Because they are monitored more closely by specialists so the body don't get too much radiation.

Answer 7

i donot know