what is an effect of ionizing radiation exposure course hero

What are the health risks of ionizing radiation?

The biological effect of ionizing radiation is the effect which occurs in human body by the exposure from Ionizing Radiation. When the radiation is fall on normal cell it causes damage and change in DNA of cell and effect the cell and tissue of human body. The potential biological effect and damages caused by radiation depend on condition of radiation exposure.

How does ionizing radiation interact with lifestyle factors?

Anything that disturbs this flow of reactions can produce damage to the cell. The major effect of ionizing radiation on the cell is the disruption of the DNA strand. With the DNA structure damaged, the cell cannot reproduce in its normal fashion. Protein synthesis is affected, as are a number of processes necessary for proper cell function.

What is ionizing radiation and how does it work?

Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to increase the future incidence of cancer, particularly leukemia. Incorrectly repairing damage due to radiation exposure can result in morphological changes to the cell, acquisition of cellular immortality, …

What are stochastic effects of ionizing radiation?

Latent effects are defined as those that appear six months or more following exposure. Acute effects are called radiation sickness and include symptoms such as nausea and vomiting and reduced red blood cells. The severity of acute effects depends on the dose. Latent effects are further divided into somatic effects and genetic effects. Somatic effects occur in the individual …

What are the risks of ionizing radiation?

In general, risks associated with ionizing radiation can be divided into the so-called stochastic effects (genetic risks in offspring, somatic effects (cancer) in directly exposed population), and deterministic effects. This review summarizes the stochastic and the deterministic risks associated with exposure to radiation.

What are the deterministic and stochastic risks associated with exposure to ionizing radiation?

This paper reviews current knowledge on the deterministic and stochastic risks (the latter including the risk of cancer and of hereditary disease ) associated with exposure to ionizing radiation. Particular attention is paid to cancer risks following exposure to man-made low linear energy transfer radiation. Excess cancer risks have been observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and in many medically and occupationally exposed groups. In general, the relative risks among Japanese survivors of atomic-bomb explosions are greater than those among comparable subsets in studies of medically exposed individuals. Cell sterilization largely accounts for the discrepancy in relative risks between these two populations, although other factors may contribute, such as the generally higher underlying cancer risks in the medical series than in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Risks among occupationally exposed groups such as nuclear workforces and underground miners are generally consistent with those observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors.

What is the time constant excess relative risk model?

The time-constant excess relative risk (ERR) model assumes that if a dose of radiation is administered to a population, then , after some latent period, there is an increase in the cancer rate, the excess rate being proportional to the underlying cancer rate in an unirradiated population. For leukaemia, this model provides an unsatisfactory fit, and consequently a number of other models have been used for this group of malignancies, including one in which the excess cancer rate resulting from exposure is assumed to be constant rather than proportional to the underlying rate, i.e. the time-constant excess absolute risk (EAR) model 10.

How are heritable genetic risks associated with radiation exposure estimated?

The heritable genetic risks associated with radiation exposure are estimated directly from animal studies in combination with data on baseline incidence of disease in human populations 17. There are no usable human data on radiation-induced germ cell mutations, let alone induced genetic diseases, and the results of the largest and most comprehensive of human epidemiological studies, namely that carried out on the children of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors, are negative; there are no statistically significant radiation-associated adverse hereditary effects in this cohort 18. The data on the induction of germline mutations at human minisatellite loci 19,20, although of importance from the standpoint of direct demonstration of radiation-induced heritable genetic changes in humans, are not suitable for risk estimation, because they occur in non-coding DNA and are not associated with heritable disease 17.

What happens when ionizing radiation is not repaired?

If cellular damage occurs and is not adequately repaired, the cell may not survive, reproduce or perform its normal function. Alternatively, it may result in a viable but modified cell, which may go on to become cancerous if it is a somatic cell, or lead to inherited disease if it is a germ cell.

Do Japanese atomic bomb survivors have cancer?

Excess cancer risks have been observed in the Japanese atomic bomb survivors and in many medically and occupationally exposed groups. In general, the relative risks among Japanese survivors of atomic-bomb explosions are greater than those among comparable subsets in studies of medically exposed individuals.

What is a simple linear model of dose?

Simple linear models of dose are generally employed to model genetic effects. For example, the preferred risk model used in the 2001 report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) 17 assumes that the excess heritable genetic risk for disease class i associated with a dose D of radiation to the parental gonads is given by: