The biological effects of radiation

Abstract

Time spent in improving one’s knowledge of radioactivity and radiation from the point of view of radiation protection is not time wasted. Perhaps the closest that the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation comes to making a pronouncement is to agree that the exposure of people to this radiation ought to be kept to a minimum. It is known that if enough radiation is absorbed in the body, it may produce clinical effects in the person who is exposed to it. This is referred to as the somatic effect of radiation. Radiation may also produce a genetic effect where the effect of the radiation is only apparent in the offspring of the persons exposed to the radiation. That is, the effect of the radiation appears in their children or their children’s children and so on. It is for this latter reason that exposure of the public to radiation is carefully controlled.