Radiation and the human body

Question 1

What is background radiation?

Answer 1

Radiation all around from rocks, the Sun, space and articificial sources

Question 2

What is contamination?

Answer 2

Having a radioactive material inside the body or on the skin

Question 3

What happens if you are internally contaminated?

Answer 3

You cannot remove the radioactive material from inside you

Question 4

What is Irradiation?

Answer 4

Being exposed to radiation from an external source,

there is radioactive outside your body but it can travel into your body

Question 5

What can both Contamination and Irradiation cause?

Answer 5

Damage to DNA in your cells and cause cancer

Question 6

How does half life affect how hazardous nuclear material is?

Answer 6

Doctors sometimes inject you with a radioactive isotope which makes images of your body.
If the half-life is too short then the tracer will decay before the gamma camera can be used
if the half life is too long, the tracer will continue to emit radiation and increase risk of cancer

Question 7

What is a common radioisotope used in humans? Why?

Answer 7

Technicium-99 becuase it is absorbed by a range of organs and has a half life of about 6 hours

Question 8

How are nuclear radiations used in medicine?

Answer 8

Materials that emit gamma rays can be used to treat cancer, the radiation can damage the cancer cells

Question 9

What do doctors use to focus gamma rays onto a cancer tumour?

Answer 9

A gamma knife

It is a moveable source of gamma rays - it needs to move to reduce dose of radiation