Radiation protection, sometimes known as radiological protection, is the protection of people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation, which includes both particle radiation and high energy electromagnetic radiation.
Ionizing radiation is widely used in industry and medicine, and it presents a significant health hazard. It is also present as cosmic rays in outer space, so spacecraft and spacesuits must have appropriate shielding. It causes microscopic damage to living tissue, resulting in skin burns and radiation sickness at high exposures, and statistically elevated risks of cancer at low exposures.
Read more about Radiation Protection: Principles of Radiation Protection, Types of Radiation, Shielding Design, Graded-Z Shielding, Radiation Protection Instruments, Radiation Dosimeters, ALARP, Outer Space
Famous quotes containing the words radiation and/or protection:
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“After so many historical illustrations of the evil effects of abandoning the policy of protection for that of a revenue tariff, we are again confronted by the suggestion that the principle of protection shall be eliminated from our tariff legislation. Have we not had enough of such experiments?”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)