what are some health consequences of radioactive fallout particles?
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Radiation has both acute and latent health effects. Acute effects include radiation sickness or death resulting from high doses of radiation (greater than 1 sievert [Sv], or 100 rems) delivered over a few days. The principal latent effect is cancer.
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If alpha-emitters are inhaled, swallowed, or get into the body through a cut, the alpha particles can damage sensitive living tissue. The way these large, heavy particles cause damage makes them more dangerous than other types of radiation.
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Alpha particles cannot penetrate most matter. A piece of paper or the outer layers of skin is sufficient to stop alpha particles. Radioactive material that emits alpha particles (alpha emitters) can be very harmful when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed into the blood stream through wounds.
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Biological effects Due to the short range of absorption and inability to penetrate the outer layers of skin, alpha particles are not, in general, dangerous to life unless the source is ingested or inhaled.
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['Being struck by falling objects or debris.', 'Impacts and collisions.', 'Breathing in contaminated air.', 'Cuts and punctures.', 'Chemical burns.', 'Electric shocks.', 'Exposure to excessive noise or vibration.', 'Projectiles or chemicals harming the eyes.']
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Alpha particles lack the energy to penetrate even the outer layer of skin, so exposure to the outside of the body is not a major concern. ... The ionizations they cause are very close together - they can release all their energy in a few cells. This results in more severe damage to cells and DNA.
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Immediately after a major accident such as the explosion at Chernobyl, large amounts of radiation are released around the reactor. This radiation is so strong that animals, plants and people can get acute radiation poisoning. In this case, irradiation of cells causes substantial damage to DNA and other cell structures.
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Although most of the time the waste is well sealed inside huge drums of steel and concrete, sometimes accidents can happen and leaks can occur. Nuclear waste can have drastically bad effects on life, causing cancerous growths, for instance, or causing genetic problems for many generations of animal and plants.
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Health problems associated with depleted uranium DU is a potential health hazard if it enters the body, such as through embedded fragments, contaminated wounds, and inhalation or ingestion. This is because U's radiation, while of high energy, penetrates poorly through tissues in the body.
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People up to 53 miles away could experience temporary blindness. But a longer-term threat would come in the minutes and hours after that explosion. Nuclear explosions can produce clouds of dust and sandlike radioactive particles that disperse into the atmosphere — what's referred to as nuclear fallout.
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A June 2012 Stanford University study estimated, using a linear no-threshold model, that the radioactivity release from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could cause 130 deaths from cancer globally (the lower bound for the estimate being 15 and the upper bound 1100) and 199 cancer cases in total (the lower bound ...
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Alpha particles lack the energy to penetrate even the outer layer of skin, so exposure to the outside of the body is not a major concern. ... The way these large, heavy particles cause damage makes them more dangerous than other types of radiation.
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Alpha particles are the least dangerous in terms of external exposure. Each particle contains a pair of neutrons and a pair of protons. They don't penetrate very deeply into the skin, if at all -- in fact, clothing can stop alpha particles.
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effects: hair loss, skin burns, nausea, gastrointestinal distress, or death (Acute Radiation Syndrome). Long-term health risks include an increased cancer risk. Such risks depend upon the function of the specific radioisotope; and the route, magnitude, and duration of exposure.
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Alpha particles are the least dangerous in terms of external exposure. Each particle contains a pair of neutrons and a pair of protons. ... Once ingested, alpha particles can be very dangerous. However, even then they don't typically cause radiation sickness -- instead, they lead to lung cancer [source: EPA].
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Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy The radioactive waste can possess a threat to the environment and is dangerous for humans. We all remember the Chernobyl accident, where the harmful effects of nuclear radiation on humans can even be witnessed today.
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It depends on whether your exposure to radiation is internal or external. Alpha particles are the most harmful internal hazard as compared with gamma rays and beta particles. ... Beta particles can partially penetrate skin, causing “beta burns”. Alpha particles cannot penetrate intact skin.