What are the dangers of radiation to the human body?

What are the symptoms if a person is exposed to nuclear radiation contamination for a long time or exceeds a tolerable dose? Dizziness and vomiting, followed by diarrhea, headache, and fever, usually occur within a few hours of exposure. After the first symptoms, the patient may not show any signs of illness for a short period of time, but within a few weeks, the patient may show signs of severe and variable illness. If the dose to the patient is very high, the signs mentioned above may also appear more rapidly, and the patient may suffer extensive damage to internal organs. The tolerable dose of radiation for a healthy adult is about 4 Gray (1 J/kg Gy), above which the lethality rate can reach 50%. Although radiation therapy is often used in the treatment of cancer, the typical dose used per treatment is between 1 and 7 Gray. However, medical radiation is not only calculated and carefully controlled, but is usually concentrated in a small part of the body. Can health damage caused by radiation contamination be treated? The first step in treatment is "decontamination", i.e., minimizing further contamination by removing clothing and scrubbing gently with soap and warm water. One of the parts of the body that is most sensitive to radiation is the bone marrow, which produces white blood cells, so medications are often given to boost the production of white blood cells and to prevent infections due to a compromised immune system. Specialized medications are now available to reduce the damage caused by radiation to the body's internal organs. What are the health effects of radiation contamination? When a radioactive substance begins its so-called half-life, it releases ions and produces radiation, which destroys the chemical composition of the body's tissues and cells. Although the body has the ability to repair itself, sometimes the damage is too great and too severe for the body to repair itself, and the radiation rays can interfere with the body's own repair, making the process problematic. In addition to the bone marrow mentioned earlier, the tissue cells of the stomach and intestinal walls are also easily damaged by radiation. The extent of the health hazard posed by the radiation rays depends on the dose received and the length of time exposed to the rays. What long-term health problems can radiation contamination cause? There are fears that the Fukushima Daiichi accident could become another Chernobyl disaster left behind. Cancer is the most common long-term radiation damage. Human cells usually break down naturally at the end of their life cycle, and once the cells lose this self-destructive function and continue to proliferate pathologically, cancer results. The human body can ensure healthy cell metabolism through self-repair, cellular self-destruction and other functions, but radiation interferes with these functions and processes. Radiation causes changes in the chemical structure of the cells and destroys genes within the cells, which may result in small skulls, slow growth, underdevelopment and other deformities in the next generation after the patient has been victimized. Is radiation more harmful to children? Generally speaking, yes, because children grow faster and divide their cells faster, which makes them more likely to be harmed. In the aftermath of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, the WHO found a dramatic increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in young children in the affected area. The main reason for this was that the radiation released in the accident was a high dose of radioactive iodine, which accumulates mainly in the thyroid gland. What can the Japanese government do to minimize the harm caused by radiation? Experts in the UK believe that if the Japanese government can act quickly, the general public will not be exposed to serious radiation hazards. In this case, the only people at higher risk of being harmed by radiation are the workers at the nuclear power plant or the rescue workers. The highest priority would be to evacuate people in areas that could be contaminated by nuclear radiation and to make sure that they do not eat food contaminated by radiation. Radioactive iodine can enter the body and increase the risk of thyroid cancer. The way to prevent this is to take chemically stable iodine lozenges, which prevent the body from absorbing radioactive iodine. To decontaminate, clothing must be removed before further radiation contamination There are fears that the Fukushima Daiichi accident could be another Chernobyl disaster to bequeath to the world