• Question: How does radiation work? Does it effect us via our mobiles?

    Asked by wizzyg12 to Claire, Matt, Sam on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Radiation is anything that is radiated by something – visible light is radiation. The problem is ‘ionising’ radiation, which can affect atomic nuclei. This can cause cell damage or cause cancer. Mobile phones produce microwave radiation, which should be fine. There are always uncertainties in science, but we don’t see massive problems from everyone having a mobile.

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 28 Jun 2013:

      I agree with Sam, we shouldn’t be affected by the microwaves from our mobile phone (but of course you probably don’t want to spend your entire day with it stuck to your head, either).

      There are different types of radiation. The whole electromagnetic spectrum, for example, is radiation – all the way from radio waves, microwaves, infrared, light, through to UV, xrays and gamma rays. As you increase their energy they get more dangerous – stuff up to visible light isn’t really bad for us, but UV rays burn and age our skin, xrays are dangerous if you get more than a little dose, and gamma rays are the ones mainly responsible for “radiation sickness”, damaging your body beyond repair.

      Other types of radiation are called alpha and beta – they are actually particles that come from radioactive decay. Depending on the energy of these particles, and how much dose you get, your body can get damaged in different ways. Also it depends where the radiation hits you. For example, your skin can deal with a slightly higher dose than your organs or glands.

      At a particle level, what radiation does is give some extra energy to another particle. (This is why the more energy it is, the more dangerous it is). If radiation hits an electron in an atom, then that electron can be knocked free and the atom is ionized and no longer the same (this is why we call it ionizing radiation).

      On a biological level, the way this affects you is because if atoms change, then that can change the structure of other things. Therefore radiation can directly change the structure of the DNA in one of your cells. Depending on the way this happens and how much damage there is, the cell can do one of 3 things:
      1) repair itself completely
      2) die
      3) repair itself incorrectly, but still live.

      1) is great – you have no lasting effect from the radiation.
      2) kinda sucks, and if a lot of cells get blasted and die then you start running into trouble
      3) is bad too because this is what cancer is – it’s a cell that keeps on living and dividing, but the cell no longer does what it’s supposed to. Instead, it becomes a tumour.

      (I had to do a radiation course to allow me to go underground to ATLAS. I have my own personal dosimeter that measures the amount of radiation I get over a year.)

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