Is it possible to see radiation

Equally, flying exposes you to higher doses of radiation as the atmosphere is considerably thinner at 12, metres above the sea. Bedrock geology can also play a major role in background radiation levels. Many areas of the world, such as Kerala India , Yangjiang China , and Guarapari Brazil , have background radiation levels times higher than the global average. In Ramsar Iran , residents can receive doses of up to mSv per year, about times the global average, due to naturally occurring radioactive elements.

However, there is no evidence of any adverse health effects in these areas. Many of these areas actually have higher radiation levels than many parts of the evacuation zones around Chernobyl and Fukushima. In fact, most areas of the Chernobyl and Fukushima evacuation zones have radiation levels no higher than natural background levels. Cancer patients often receive extremely high radiation doses — in some cases Sievert over a period of a few weeks — to treat their disease.

Cancer treatments focus on a specifically-targeted part of the body — which the body can cope with — whereas an identical dose over the whole body would be fatal. Building materials can also emit radiation. Many buildings made out of granite are radioactive, due to the fact that granite contains uranium.

These scanners are no longer in use. The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team. Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as journalists, editors, and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.

American College of Radiology. Accessed at www. Computed tomography--an increasing source of radiation exposure. N Engl J Med. Cancer consequences of the Chernobyl accident: 20 years on. J Radiol Prot. National Toxicology Program.

Ionizing radiation: x-radiation and gamma radiation. Rep Carcinog. National Cancer Institute. Risk of cancer and non-cancer diseases in the atomic bomb survivors. Radiat Prot Dosimetry. Transportation Security Administration. United States Department of Agriculture. Radiation and the risk of chronic lymphocytic and other leukemias among Chernobyl cleanup workers. Environ Health Perspect. Epub Oct American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material.

For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy. Download this topic [PDF]. People may be exposed to this type of radiation from 3 main sources: Natural background radiation comes from cosmic rays from our solar system and radioactive elements normally present in the soil.

This is the major contributor to worldwide radiation exposure. Medical radiation is used for x-rays, CT scans, and other tests, as well as for radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is used to treat some types of cancer and involves dosages many thousand times higher than those used in diagnostic x-rays. Non-medical, man-made radiation is used in small amounts in food irradiation, airport security scanners, and some consumer products. Exposure to man-made radiation can happen in certain workplaces, or in communities as a result of above ground nuclear weapons testing and nuclear accidents.

Natural background Radiation We are all exposed to some amount of radiation just from being on this planet. Cosmic rays Cosmic rays are radioactive particles that hit the earth from outer space. Radiation in the earth People are also exposed to small amounts of radiation from radioactive elements that occur naturally in rocks and soil. Homes can also become contaminated with radioactive materials in body fluids from internally contaminated people. Making sure that others do not come in contact with body fluids from a contaminated person will help prevent contamination of other people in the household.

Since radiation cannot be seen, smelled, felt, or tasted, people at the site of an incident will not know whether radioactive materials were involved. You can take the following steps to limit your contamination. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link.

Radiation Emergencies. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Contamination vs. Minus Related Pages. Accessed April 2, Comment on Update of 40K and Ra and Th series gamma-to-dose conversion factors for soil.

Download references. The authors would like to express their gratitude and appreciation to Kazuyuki Hosokawa, QUT, and Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services for their support, allowing us to use their facility for this study.

O Box , Riyadh, , Saudi Arabia. Box , Alkharj, , Saudi Arabia. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to A. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Reprints and Permissions. Johary, Y. The suitability of smartphone camera sensors for detecting radiation. Sci Rep 11, Download citation. Received : 03 November Accepted : 07 June Published : 16 June Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

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Download PDF. Subjects Biophysics Natural hazards Physics. Abstract The advanced image sensors installed on now-ubiquitous smartphones can be used to detect ionising radiation in addition to visible light. Introduction Human beings are exposed to ionizing radiation from human-made and natural sources terrestrial, cosmic, and internal radiation.

Figure 1. Full size image. Figure 2. Irradiation and measurement setup. Table 1 Error percentages from the dose rates at the calibrated source measurements. Full size table. Figure 3. Results and discussion The RadioactivityCounter app installed on an iPhone 6s was tested. Dose rate measurements Radiation dose rates were measured by the phone as a function of the distance between the source and smartphone sensor.

Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6. Figure 7. Figure 8. Figure 9. Figure Measurement setup with stand. Measurement setup pointing directly at sunlight over Pad 1. Measurement setup without stand. Conclusions In this work, the RadioactivityCounter smartphone application was evaluated for its ability to measuring ionizing radiation. References 1. Article Google Scholar 2. Book Google Scholar 3. Book Google Scholar 5. Google Scholar Article Google Scholar Acknowledgements The authors would like to express their gratitude and appreciation to Kazuyuki Hosokawa, QUT, and Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services for their support, allowing us to use their facility for this study.

Box , Alkharj, , Saudi Arabia A. Sulieman Authors Yehia H. Johary View author publications. View author publications. Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. About this article. Cite this article Johary, Y.

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