Radiation sickness

April 8th, 2011 by admin1

Radiation sickness or poisoning includes illness and symptoms that result from excessive exposure to radiation. Radiation is classified into two types: Nonionizing radiation and ionizing radiation. Nonionizing radiation is common to our surroundings. It includes light, radio waves, microwaves and radar and does not usually cause tissue damage.
Ionizing radiation may or may not produce immediate chemical effects on tissues, it depends upon the severity and amount of exposure. Sources of ionizing radiation include x-rays, gamma rays, and particle bombardment. This type of radiation can be used for medical testing and medical treatments. It is also used in manufacturing, sterilization, industrial testing, weapons and weapons development, and energy production. Exposure to this radiation can be intentional, as in medical treatments for cancer, or accidental, as in radiant contamination of air, soil, water, and food supplies affecting a population near a failing nuclear plant.
Radiation sickness occurs when a person is exposed to doses of ionizing radiation in such large or prolonged amounts that health is compromised. This can occur as a single, large, one time exposure, referred to as acute exposure, or as a series of smaller exposures spread over a prolonged period of time (chronic exposure).
Radiation sickness or poisoning is generally associated with a sudden massive dose of radiation. This kind of exposure has a well documented set of symptoms that can be reliably predicted.
Sickness or poisoning associated with chronic exposure occurs belatedly, and with less defined but equally grim outcomes not limited to cancers, infections, and premature aging. The severity of symptoms with either form of exposure depends upon the actual dose and the rate of exposure. It is often difficult to determine the amount of radiation exposure, particularly from accidents. Generally the best indication of the severity of the exposure is to gauge the length of time between the radiation exposure and the onset of symptoms, the severity of the symptoms, and specifically, the severity and speed of the changes in white blood cells. The more severe and sudden the symptoms, the higher the radiation exposure is presumed to be. Frequent blood studies (to assess the health of white blood cells) are vital to determining the severity of the poisoning, particularly in children.
Effects of radiation poisoning are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, burns on the skin including redness, blistering, and inflammation, fatigue, exhaustion, fainting, dizziness, headaches, fever, dehydration, hair loss, ulcerations in the mouth, esophagus, stomach or intestines, bloody vomit or stools, bleeding from the nose, gums, mouth or rectum, bruising and sloughing of the skin, open sores, neurological difficulties, and death. Prolonged or chronic exposure is known to cause some of the same symptoms to varying degrees over longer periods of time and may not show up for years after the exposure. Some types of cancers and tumors, genetic mutations, and the destruction of bone marrow, which leaves the patient susceptible to infections, are all documented side effects of radiation poisoning. Radiation can also damage red blood cells and victims may receive blood transfusions to compensate.