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Ionizing Radiation Essay

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I have chosen option number two, ionizing radiation effects on cells and tissues this week, since radioactivity and its effect on people has always been a topic of immense interest to me and also since I have some experience at specialized schools working around live radioactive sources and within a mildly irradiated area since training for response to a radiological incident is greatly enhanced when the monitors truly get readings.

The tissues and cells of the body are defined in both structure and composition. Ionizing radiation contains sufficient energy to break chemical bonds and as an example normal ionization has at least six times the energy required to break the bond of two carbon atoms (How does radiation affect humans?, n.d., Para 2). As chemical bonds are broken by this radiation, the structure and composition of the cell may be compromised. Effects may include broken or altered DNA chains which then contain compromised instructions for the cells. I consider this comparable to a corrupt file on the operating system of a computer where a majority of the needed files are correct, but the alteration is large enough that the computer cannot function properly. …show more content…

Outright cell death occurs at a dosage of approximately 100 gray (1 gray = 1joule/kilogram energy absorption) whereas reproductive death can occur at approximately 2 gray (How does radiation affect humans?, n.d., Para 5). If sufficient quantities of key cells are directly killed by the ionization, the victim will die. Reproductive death in certain cells, such as blood and intestinal tract lining is also fatal (How does radiation affect humans?, n.d., Para 5). A whole body exposure to 100 gray is lethal within 48 hours while a 2.5-5 gray exposure proves lethal within a few weeks (How does radiation affect humans?, n.d., Para

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