Radiation Safety

[healthstar]

Hello Nurses,

I have learned that shielding,time, and distance can reduce your risk of radiation exposure in hospitals. Just curious, what health problems can radiation cause and how ?

Thank you in advance.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

Summit summed the effects up pretty effectively. If you remember back to chemistry, the atoms that make up our cells and complex molecules rely on the interaction of electrons. Basically, atoms can share, gain and loose electrons to form bonds. Of course, other concepts such as dipole interactions and noncovalent bonds other than ionic play a role, but we can all agree that electron interactions are very important.

When ionizing radiation smashes into our cells and disrupts the very interactions that make biology possible, it is easy to understand why we need to worry about problems such as cancer. Additionally, we can appreciate the effects of "regular" (nonionizing) heat and conventional burns quite easily.

Yes, it was very helpful.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

Gila: 'fraid I didn't quite finish the BSNE, otherwise an ABSN would be a good plan. When I finish by BSN, I'll have over 200 credits!

I thought we had answered your question quite thoroughly. I don't know what else to tell you other than to summarize: normal occupation radiation exposure in hospitals leads to negligible increases in cancer risk over a lifetime. Exposure limits are not normally reached. Even at the limits, the risk extremely low. If you are pregnant, effects are magnified (radiation is a teratogen).

I could throw a bunch of numbers out, but I'm not sure they'd be very helpful. If you really want to get into the subject, here is some light reading:

If that http://ec.europa.eu/energy/nuclear/radiation_protection/doc/publication/125.pdf

And I thank you for your help.