Protection from radiation

Some people call it radiation protection, others radiological protection but nonetheless it is the science of protecting both people and the environment from the damaging effects of ionizing radiation. Both particle radiation and energy electromagnetic radiation are considered. Even though it is highly dangerous for the health, ionizing radiation is still in use in some spheres of medicine and industry. A person who is exposed to it can suffer from skin burns and radiation sickness and has more chance of getting cancer, tumor or genetic damage. This all happens because of the microscopic damage to living tissue.

Radiation protections

There are three ways of radiation protections. Occupational radiation protection, the protection of workers is one of them. Medical radiation protection which protects the patients from radiation and public radiation protection which protects both a single member of the public and the whole population.

Three factors manage the amount of radiation received from a source. If these three factors are combined, a person can control the radiation exposure. These factors are time, distance and shielding. By reducing the time of being exposed to radiation a person will also lessen the power of the dose. It is important that there is distance. For instance, a person can use forceps when handling a source instead of his or her fingers. Biological shield is actually a mass that is placed around the source which is supposed to absorb the radiation and lessen its effect on humans so a person can work on it.

In most countries, the government set certain requirements that need to be fulfilled in order for companies to work with radioactive material. Justification means that there must not be any unnecessary use of radiation. Limitation means that every single person involved with radiation must be adequately protected. Optimization means that the radiation doses must be kept as low as possible.

Types of radiation

There are various types of radiation and they all act in different ways. That is the reason why not all shielding techniques are the same.

Particle radiation is made of a stream of either charged or neutral particles, subatomic elementary particles and both charged ions. Alpha particles or helium nuclei are not so penetrating and a person can protect himself or herself with a single sheet of paper. On the other hand, beta particles or electrons are a bit more penetrating. However, a person can be protected with just a couple of millimeters of aluminum. In case of exposure to high energy beat particles a person will need to be shielded with low density materials like wood, plastic, water or acrylic glass. Apart from these, there are also neutron radiation, cosmic radiation, electromagnetic radiation, X-ray and gamma radiation and ultraviolet radiation.