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Radiation 

Radiation
Chapter:
Radiation
Author(s):

Jill Meara

DOI:
10.1093/med/9780198746690.003.0210
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date: 28 February 2021

Ionizing radiation has sufficient energy to break chemical bonds and produce charged ions in living tissue. These changes might cause cell death, but breaks of both strands of a DNA molecule that do not kill a cell can be a precursor of cancer. Excluding medical exposures, natural radiation accounts for most human exposure, which produces health effects that might be (1) stochastic, where the probability of manifesting the effect depends on the radiation dose, including carcinogenesis and induction of heritable defects; (2) psychological, especially following accidental exposures; and (3) tissue reactions, occurring when sufficient cells are killed after exposure to radiation doses above a certain threshold, including the acute radiation syndrome (radiation sickness) and radiation burns.

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