Radiation Hazards

High doses of radiation can kill living cells so they can be used to treat cancer. Medium doses, however, can damage the DNA of a cell causing it to go out of control and divide rapidly. The damaged cells can cause cancer. Those cancerous cells can then be killed either by high doses of radiation or by using drugs in chemotherapy.

Alpha radiation is the most dangerous radiation if swallowed and beta and gamma are the most dangerous outside the body. Exposure to radiation is measured in millisieverts (mSv). Background radiation is about 2mSv/ year and the legal limit for radiation workers is 20mSv/ year.