Harm of radioactive

There's been some reported evidence that radioactive iodine and cesium are being released
into the environment from the malfunctioning nuclear reactors in Japan, said Kathryn Higley,
director of the Oregon State University department of nuclear engineering and radiation
health physics.

As radioactive material decays, or breaks down, the energy released into the environment
has two ways of harming a body that is exposed to it, Higley said. It can directly kill cells, or it
can cause mutations to DNA. If those mutations are not repaired, the cell may turn cancerous.

Radioactive iodine tends to be absorbed by the thyroid gland and can cause thyroid cancer,
said Dr. Lydia Zablotska, an assistant professor in the department of epidemiology and
biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.
But radioactive iodine is short-lived and will be around for only about two months after an
accident, said Andre Bouville of the National Cancer Institute, who has studied radiation
doses from the fallout of the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine. So, if the exposure to the
air comes after that time, radioactive iodine does not pose a health risk, Bouville said.

Children are most at risk for thyroid cancer, since their thyroid glands are 10 times smaller
than those of adults, he said. The radioactive iodine would be more concentrated in them.

Radioactive cesium, on the other hand, can stay in the environment for more than a century.
But it does not concentrate in one part of the body the way radioactive iodine does.

The Chernobyl accident released a plume of radioactive materials into the atmosphere in a
fraction of a second. In the following years, the incidence of thyroid cancer among those
exposed as children increased in Ukraine and nearby countries, Zablotska said. The cancer
showed up between four and 10 years after the accident, Bouville said.

Children were exposed to radioactive material mainly from eating contaminated leafy
vegetables and dairy. There have been no detectable health effects from exposure to
radioactive cesium after the accident.

In general, it takes a pretty high dose of radiation to increase cancer risk, Higley said. For
instance, there were reports that one Japanese worker was exposed to 10 rem (100
millisievert, mSV), a measurement of radiation dose. From that exposure, his lifetime cancer
risk would go up about half a percent, Higley said. According to Higley, the dose is the
equivalent of about five CT scans. Americans are exposed to about 0.3 rem (3 mSv) each year
from natural sources, such as the sun.

Potentially, exposure to any type of radiation can increase cancer risk, with higher exposure
increasing the risk, Bouville said.

No increases in cancer rates were observed after the release of radioactive from a power
plant on Three Mile Island, Pa., in 1979, Zablotska said.
Radiation sickness

A person's risk of getting sick depends on how much radiation the body absorbs. Those
exposed to high levels of radiation, about 200 rem, (2000 millisievert ) could develop radiation
sickness, Bouville said. A chest X-ray is about 0.02 rem, (0.2 millisieverts mSv), according to
the Interational Atomic Energy Agency.

People are exposed to about 0.24 rem (2.4 mSv) per year from natural background radiation
in the environment, the IAEA says.

What is radiation?

Radiation is a way that energy or heat moves around. Low levels of radiation are everywhere
- this is known as background radiation.

The Sun, soil, rocks and even animals all give off low levels of radiation.

A nuclear power plant produces a lot of radiation - but it is usually contained safely within the
reactor.

But if the reactor becomes badly damaged - as happened in Fukushima in Japan in 2011 -
radiation can escape and become dangerous to the environment.

Is radiation dangerous?

Radiation damages the cells that make up the human body.

Low levels of radiation are not dangerous, but medium levels can lead to sickness, headaches,
vomiting and a fever.

High levels can kill you by causing damage to your internal organs. It's difficult to treat high
radiation exposure.

Exposure to radiation over a long time can cause cancer.

How dangerous is the Japanese nuclear power plant?

It's thought that only emergency workers at the plant are at risk of harmful doses of radiation,
but it's likely they are only being exposed for short lengths of time so there's less danger.

The level of exposure for people living close to the plant was a lot lower, and there should be
little risk to people living further away.
How does radioactive cause cancer

Ionising radiation, such as gamma rays, X-rays and radioactive particles can cause cancer by
damaging DNA. However, how this happens, or how many tumours are caused by radiation
damage has not been known.

Previous work on cancer had revealed that DNA damage often leaves a molecular fingerprint,
known as a mutational signature, on the genome of a cancer cell. The researchers looked for
mutational signatures in 12 patients with secondary radiation-associated tumours, comparing
these with 319 that had not been exposed to radiation.

One mutational signature is a deletion where small numbers of DNA bases are cut out. The
second is called a balanced inversion, where the DNA is cut in two places, the middle piece
spins round, and is joined back again in the opposite orientation. Balanced inversions don’t
happen naturally in the body, but high-energy radiation could provide enough DNA breaks at
the same time to make this possible.

Up to 10% of invasive cancers are related to radiation exposure, specifically ionizing

radiation.[1] Additionally, the vast majority of non-invasive cancers are non-melanoma skin
cancers caused by ultraviolet radiation. Ultraviolet's position on the electromagnetic
spectrum is on the boundary between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing radio
frequency radiation from mobile phones, electric power transmission, and other similar
sources have been described as a possible carcinogen by the World Health
Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, but the link remains unproven.[2]
Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to increase the future incidence of cancer,
particularly leukemia. The mechanism by which this occurs is well understood, but
quantitative models predicting the level of risk remain controversial. The most widely
accepted model posits that the incidence of cancers due to ionizing radiation increases
linearly with effective radiation dose at a rate of 5.5% per sievert.[3] If the linear model is
correct, then natural background radiation is the most hazardous source of radiation to
general public health, followed by medical imaging as a close second.
Radiation is everywhere. Ultraviolet light streams down from the sun. Radon may seep from
the cracks in our basements. Nuclear energy keeps the lights on in millions of homes across
the world. X-rays and MRIs may be used to help diagnose injury and disease. The human body
is bombarded with low doses of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation throughout the day, from
sources of heat and light to waves from cell phones and microwaves. “Our body has the ability
to recover from radiation damage,” says Anderson Bauer, MD, DABR, Radiation Oncologist
at our Phoenix hospital. “If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have made it as a species this far in time.”

In high or sustained doses, however, radiation may be both damaging and devastating.
Radiation may disassemble atoms and cause DNA damage in cells, leading to potentially
serious side effects, including cancer. Ultraviolet light from the sun may damage skin cells and
increase the risk of melanoma or other types of skin cancer. Radon, an odorless gas found in
indoor areas and drinking water, has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. High
doses of ionizing radiation may damage organs and cause blood diseases or neurologic
disorders. So how can something so potentially lethal be used to treat cancer? “We get that
question all the time,” Dr. Bauer says.

What is radiation?

Ionizing radiation Non-ionizing radiation

This type of radiation is strong enough to
remove an electron from the nucleus of an
atom. High doses on ionizing radiation may
lead to radiation sickness, neurological
issues and diseases, including cancer.
This type of radiation is made up of weaker
electromagnetic waves that are not
powerful enough to disassemble an atom.
But this type of radiation may still cause cell
damage in high doses.

Sources of ionizing radiation include: Sources of non-ionizing radiation include:

Ultraviolet light Microwaves
X-rays Radio waves
Nuclear power or weapons TVs and computer monitors
Radon Cell phones

Radiation was first discovered as a potential cancer treatment around the turn of the
20th century. But when radiologists in those early years began developing leukemia, it was
soon discovered that radiation may also cause cancer. In the decades that followed, the
ravages of radiation poisoning have been recorded in the survivors of the 1945 nuclear bomb
explosions in Japan, those exposed to nuclear weapons testing and victims exposed after the
1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

But researchers and doctors have learned to harness the power of radioactivity to damage
cells and unleash it on cancer cells. And today’s radiation therapy technologies are better able
to focus that energy with exacting precision with tools designed to spare surrounding healthy
tissue. The Calypso® 4D Localization System™, for instance, is designed to adjust the radiation
beam to a patient’s breathing and other natural movement. TomoTherapy ® is designed to
mold the radiation beam to the exact shape of a tumor. Interventional radiologists have
techniques designed to deliver radiation therapy directly to liver tumors. “These technologies
reduce the risk of damage to healthy tissue and decrease the chance of a secondary
malignancy,” Dr. Bauer says. “And at the same time, they reduce the potential side effects a
patient may experience while undergoing radiation treatment.”

Side effects patients experience after radiation treatment may depend on the cancer it is
being used to treat. Radiation exposure to healthy lung tissue may cause inflammation and
coughing. Damage to healthy tissues in the gastrointestinal tract may cause pain, nausea or
diarrhea, Dr. Bauer says. And the risk remains that radiation therapy to treat cancers in young
people may increase their chance of developing second cancers later in life. “It’s definitely
something we think about, more so in younger patients,” Dr. Bauer says. “We don’t like to
take unnecessary risks if there are other options. But the benefit of the cancer treatment far
outweighs the risk of a secondary malignancy. It doesn’t mean we ignore the risk.”