How can nuclear radiation harm humans? When molten nuclear fuel melts through a nuclear power plant’s barriers, it causes a serious radiation leak. The radioactive materials will seep out to the surrounding environment, and into the air. Once in the upper atmosphere, high winds and jet streams could carry the dust to all places, and dropping radiation on everything, causing radiation poisoning.
Radiation can penetrate deep inside the human body, and into the cells. Exposure to radiation can also cause genetic defects to children of pregnant women at the time. Few days ago, in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, repair workers were burned as contaminated water soaked their feet and ankles. These workers could probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long-term.
Nuclear Radiation and its Effects on the Living Cell
Nuclear radiation can be devastating to all kinds of life on earth. The radioactive 'dust' is dangerous because it emits alpha, beta, and gamma radiation that can go right through walls, roofs, and clothes. These radioactive particles may also be taken in the body with the air, food, and water or through an open wound.
When this happens, the radiation that penetrated the body may remain near the entry point or may travel in the blood or lymph fluid. Radiation exposure can damage the body cells and the DNA molecules. At a low-level radiation, injured cells may still be able to repair themselves and replace cells that died. On the other hand, a high-dose exposure, because of nuclear fallout, could cause cells to become sterile, damaging their ability to repair or reproduce. Virtually no new replacement cells are produced because of the extensive damage to stem cells in bone marrow. At extremely high doses, radiation causes death of cells through a process called thermalization, which cooks a cell from the inside out.
How Exposure to Radiation Damages the Human Body
In his Nobel Prize Lecture, Linus Pauling stated, “. . . It is known that high-energy radiation can cause leukemia, cancer and other diseases.”
Radioactive materials can damage body cells and can cause mutations in the DNA. High doses of radiation will destroy organs and tissues. An exposure to a dose of 200 rems may result in severe blood damage, nausea, hair loss, hemorrhage, and death in some cases. Effects of high radiation doses may cause death in less than two months for over 80% of the victims.
In Japan today, the Agency for Nuclear Safety has increased to level 7 the radiation risk, which is the highest rate for nuclear accidents. The same Level 7 was given to the 1996 Chernobyl disaster. What does level seven means? The level 7 is used to describe nuclear accidents emitting a high level of radioactive material. At this highest level, a nuclear accident could cause severe damage to health and environment.
Radiation sickness, also known as ARS, occurs when the entire body receives a high dose of radiation over a short period. Ionizing radiation is considered a great threat to health and even a small dose could trigger cancer in the long term. Exposure to radiation from nuclear plants and other high-energy sources could cause people to die, if not from cancer, then from some other diseases. Here are some of the symptoms of radiation sickness.
Symptoms of Radiation Sickness
The severity of radiation sickness depends on the dose that was absorbed in the body. The greater the dose, the sicker a person gets. Moderate levels of radiation will cause people to feel symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and pain a few hours after their exposure. They will feel extreme fatigue and all-over weakness, and could faint every now and then. The areas of skin exposed to radiation will appear like severe sunburn, then sores may form, and skin infection may develop.
After the first round of flu-like signs and symptoms, a victim may appear well for a brief period. Then severe and new symptoms may follow shortly, as there will be loss of white blood cells and drop in the production of new blood cells. This may result in a loss of appetite, diarrhea, and fever.
Radiation poisoning can also cause bleeding in the nose, mouth, gums and rectum. Exposure to doses of 300 rems or more can produce symptoms such as hair loss, bleeding and shedding of the lining on the gastrointestinal tract. High levels of radiation can damage small blood vessels that could lead to heart failure and then death.
Possible Radiation Risks from Fukushima Plant
Experts still cannot determine the total impact of the radiation from the nuclear reactors in Japan. Radiation continues to soar and high level of cesium and other substances were detected in the area. Workers had to dump low-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean to make room for more highly radioactive water. As if things were not bad enough, the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan on April 7 caused water to slosh out of spent fuel pools.
"We have detected the isotopes, but we would like to ask the public not to panic because these are very tiny amounts in the air," Tina Cerbolis, a spokesperson for the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute told AFP News. However, most experts agree that even a low dose of ionizing radiation—as low as 100 millisieverts—can increase the risk to cancer. Exposure to one sievert of radiation could increase by 5% the lifetime risk to cancer. Children will have an increased risk of developing thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer.
Based on the status report on Japan's nuclear plant crisis, radiation amounts from the damaged nuclear reactors are miniscule if compared to previous nuclear plant fallouts; but, unfortunately, even a small dose can have significant health effects, and much more on the young and the weak.
References:
- Fact Sheet on Biological Effects of Radiation, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, January 2011
- Radiation Risks and Realities, United States Environmental Protection Agency, May 2007
Lizzie Elzingre - The Malay Temper is the main component of the Filipino Culture. The premier Malay characteristic described as pleasant and obliging is a ...
Join the Conversation