Exposure To Radiation Essay

Exposure from ionizing radiation could produce short or long term effects creating biological damage to living cells. In human, the effects could be from the molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and as well as the whole body. The radiation can affects the cells direct and indirectly. If radiation interacts with the atoms of the DNA molecule, it is referred to as a direct effect. Ability of the cell to reproduce and survive might be affected as well. The probability of the DNA affected by the radiation is small because it is only a small part of the cell. However, since the human body cells are mostly making up of water, there is higher probability of radiation.

The sensitivity of the cells’ exposure to radiation is not the same. Radiation which interacts with an active cell directly could result in the death or mutation of the cell, but there would be less effect if interacting with a dormant cell. It can be concluded that the sensitivity of the cells depend on their rate of reproduction. An example of the most sensitive cell is the white blood cells, lymphocytes which produce blood and are constantly regenerating.

If the affected cell has severe damage, it will die. Even though it still can reproduce, the daughter cells could be lacking in some life-sustaining component and eventually will die. Another possible result of radiation exposure is mutated cell instead of it dies, and eventually leads to cell mutation which could create malignant tumour. A developing embryo is also sensitive to radiation exposure similar to the tumour but the effects are totally different. It can be said that the whole body sensitivity depends on the most sensitive organs as well as the most sensitive cells. As noted previously, the most sensitive organs which could be significantly affected are the blood forming organs and the gastrointestinal