Radiation doses affecting the body

Facts and Information about Radiation Exposure The Energy Collective,
Willem Post   19 March 2011  “……RADIATION DOSES

The extent and time period of exposure to a dose is important to determine the likely biological damage to a human body. A healthy adult body has a given capacity to repair damage from radiation. Thus a full body exposure to a big dose over a short time is generally more harmful because the body cannot keep up with repairs, than a full body exposure to a small dose over a long time which the body usually can repair as it occurs.

Ingesting and inhaling radioactive particulate, such as radioactive dust blown by the wind from a nuclear plant fire or atomic bomb test, is harmful. As the radioactive particulate enters the cell, it damages the DNA which affects the expression of chromosomes which, in some cases, does not show up for decades as a tumor or cancer, making it difficult to establish cause and effect.

Exposure to other DNA-altering contaminants in the environment, such as urban pollution, lead from paints and gasoline, radon in stone buildings, herbicides, pesticides, industrial waste and agricultural run-off, and lifestyle exposures, such as from smoking, drugs, alcohol and pollutants in the workplace further complicates any cause and effect analyses.

If a significant quantity of radioactive particulate stays in parts of the body, such as radioactive iodine in the thyroid or radioactive polonium (in cigarette smoke) in the lungs, it may cause DNA damage that leads to:

– tumors (thyroid, ovaries, breasts, prostate, lungs, etc.) that may become cancerous

– leukemia, i.e., cancer of the blood and bone marrow

– birth defects

– neurological defects that may hinder future mental development resulting in lower IQs

As a significant part of the US soil, water, fauna (includes people) and flora was exposed to radioactive isotopes from atomic testing in Nevada, mostly during the 40s, 50s and 60s, adverse public health impacts, some lasting more than one generation, have occurred….  http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/53939/radiation-exposure