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Radiobiology Essay

Radiation safety education is important to protect populations from radiation risks. Understanding radiation effects and disaster situations is key to proper response. Radiation safety knowledge grows as health professionals learn more about radiobiology. Many countries rely heavily on nuclear power, like Ukraine which gets 60% of its power from nuclear energy. Research in Ukraine has improved wastewater treatment and reduced air pollution from nuclear energy. To change public perceptions of radiation risks, preventing future nuclear accidents through regulatory oversight is important. Improving radiation education for students, health workers, and lawmakers can also help reduce fears.

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44 views4 pages

Radiobiology Essay

Radiation safety education is important to protect populations from radiation risks. Understanding radiation effects and disaster situations is key to proper response. Radiation safety knowledge grows as health professionals learn more about radiobiology. Many countries rely heavily on nuclear power, like Ukraine which gets 60% of its power from nuclear energy. Research in Ukraine has improved wastewater treatment and reduced air pollution from nuclear energy. To change public perceptions of radiation risks, preventing future nuclear accidents through regulatory oversight is important. Improving radiation education for students, health workers, and lawmakers can also help reduce fears.

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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Radiation Safety Essay

Ryan Monago

DOS 541

Radiation education is paramount in protecting many different populations.


Understanding radiation effects and situations that can arise from potential disasters is crucial to
appropriate reaction. Radiation safety grows as physicians, physicists, health care workers, and
lawmakers comprehend more information regarding radiobiology. Risk estimates used for
surveillance and protection come from experimentation to insects and animals.1 Human statistical
analysis can only be done from disasters or accidents. The biological and genetic damage
radiation can produce within the human body makes studying this subject difficult. From
historical events it is clear to see that most efforts to reduce radiation come as reactive actions by
lawmakers. Without the disastrous events in our worlds past, we may not have made such
concrete advances in radiation protection legislation and education. With this being said, there is
always room for improvement.

Many countries rely heavily on the energy produced by nuclear power in order to supply
much of their populations need. A prime example of this is Ukraine, who currently contribute
about 60% of their nationwide power supply to nuclear energy.2 From a political standpoint, it is
vital to the country that nuclear power is supported and protected for their people. The public
there has already had a disastrous event in Chernobyl, which had a massive effect on the publics
view. People hear terms like acute radiation syndrome and are fearful of the unknown. Even so,
Ukraine has largely been innovative in their approach to helping their people feel protected from
this necessary source of energy. Zabulonov et al.2 wrote about the strategic advances from the
Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Research was developed to produce improvements in chemical units to clean wastewater,
meteorological solid-state detectors for ionizing radiation, and reduction in air pollution emission
methods. As I mentioned before, laws and policies in radiation tend to be reactive as new
accidents provide insight on potential future dangers. From this article, I believe that we can
push for standardization of exposure limitations. Require countries and governing bodies to
present their plans for reducing nuclear risk in the future. Having some sort of showcase
international event to help get countries on the most effective track. Presentations with expected
contamination data, efforts in addressing such issues, and information on nuclear power use.

A proposal like this would help lawmakers and politicians understand the logistics and
importance of radiation power and waste management. The public’s perception takes time to
mend, especially after events such as Chernobyl, Fukushima, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki3 to name
a few. According to Paul Slovic is a 2012 feature article, the idea of risk for the layperson and
that of a radiation worker experiences divergence.4 Peoples understanding comes from the uses
of radiation, rather than statistical analysis of risk and percentages. When the US government
opted to release atomic weapons in Japan in August of 1945, the public’s view of radiation was
altered drastically. Seeing the damages of the bombing and the deaths from events such as
Chernobyl and 3-mile Island, it is clear that the negative and morbid historical nuclear events
leave the public fearful for good reason. The only viable way to change the publics perception is
to prevent future accidents as best as these radiation safety committees can. Committees like the
United Nations Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the
Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are all
examples of bodies working towards reducing the likelihood of future nuclear accidents. As an
effort to increase publics knowledge on the topic, it is reasonable to expect a need for
educational change. The best way to impactfully expand the publics radiation knowledge is to
provide required radiation units within national coursework. By teaching students and even their
instructors the basics of radiobiology, along with the safety committees intact now, we can
reduce inherent fear through education.

Health care employees are an interesting group to go about improving their radiation and
nuclear knowledge. Many health care workers feel they do understand radiation to some degree,
whether it be from exposure to different units or modules on radiation safety in hospital training.
In order to improve health care employee’s knowledge of nuclear energy and weapons it may
prove beneficial to have more consistent radiation safety modules for health care employees.
They could implement a system to monitor a worker’s experience with radiation equipment or
technology and based on their involvement decrease the required teachings accordingly. Overall,
many employees of a hospital will feel they do not need to learn more about nuclear power or
radiation. By providing new teachings hopefully they will see the gaps in their education that can
be filled.

The discrepancy of education on nuclear power and how it affects the world and people
that live on it drives us apart. To better understand the severity of nuclear safety, but also the
radiobiological statistics behind carcinogenic mutations changes must be made for the future. As
proposed earlier, I believe the best way to teach lawmakers and the governing bodies is to create
some international event to showcase what different countries and regions are doing to increase
their nuclear safety for the future. For health care employees and the public view, it is important
to not instill worry but understanding. Better information and more exposure through class
material in grade schooling can lead to more comprehension as adults. As a society, the best way
to educate better is to start earlier.
References

1. Thomason C PhD. Risk Estimates Lecture. [SoftChalk]. La Crosse, WI: UW-L Medical
Dosimetry Program; 2023.

2. Zabulonov Y, Popov O, Burtniak V, Iatsyshyn A, Kovach V, Iatsyshyn A. Innovative


developments to solve major aspects of environmental and radiation safety of Ukraine. In:
Springer EBooks. ; 2021:273-292. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-69189-9_16

3. Kashiwakura TTHY. The Medical Treatment of Radiation Exposure and Contamination in


Radiation Accidents. Radiation Environment and Medicine 2017. 2017;6(2):94-103.

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