nuclear-news

Low level radiation increases the probability of cancer

Any increase in radiation increases the probability that you’ll get cancer. And that’s not radiation sickness but that is a much more pervasive effect than acute radiation sickness. When you look at the nuclear fuel cycle you have to look at how much radiation is released in its many different forms and how many people that over their lifetime would have shortened their lifetimes.

VIDEO  Q&A: Japan nuclear crisis ‘getting worse’ : World News Australia on SBS : World News Australia on SBS31 March 2011 Australia won’t be exposed to a substantial increase in radioactivity as Japan’s nuclear crisis unfolds, but the situation at Fukushima’s crippled power plants is getting worse, according to Professor Jim Falk, from the Melbourne School of Land and Environment. n an interview with SBS, he says the world is entering unexplored territory with the Fukushima nuclear disaster: What is radiation sickness?

Radiation sickness is caused by the cells in the body breaking down under the impact of ionising radiation, and it causes blemishes in the skin, and it causes breakdowns in the gut, and in extreme cases it causes catastrophic breakdown in vital organs and you die.
How many people around the world since nuclear energy became an issue, have been affected by radiation sickness?

That’s very difficult to say. Any increase in radiation increases the probability that you’ll get cancer. And that’s not radiation sickness but that is a much more pervasive effect than acute radiation sickness. When you look at the nuclear fuel cycle you have to look at how much radiation is released in its many different forms and how many people that over their lifetime would have shortened their lifetimes.
What are the risks? Are they different if the radiation is airborne, or in the water, or in the soil?

Different risks associate with different ways of getting the radiation to your body. If you’re exposed to so-called gamma radiation, like x-rays, then that produces [broad] impacts of radiation across your body.

If you take in a radioactive particle, whether it be of smoke, or if it be dissolved into water, for example plutonium, caesium, or iodine-131, then the body can concentrate it into particular organs. For example iodine-131 gets concentrated into the thyroid, and there you can get an internal dose of radiation to that organ. Then you can have different sorts of radiation, whilst plutonium on your skin’s not going to give you a problem, because it’s a so-called alpha emitter, if it’s absorbed into the lungs a very small amount of it can give you an increased chance of getting lung cancer…….
Q&A: Japan nuclear crisis ‘getting worse’ : World News Australia on SBS

April 1, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health