Radioactive releases can change the levels of radiation in an environment. For example, global nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s-1960s lead to a significant increase in the radiation present in the world. Though some radioactive isotopes decay rapidly, this radiation doesn't just disappear. It moves around and eventually finds some place to settle whether it's on the ground or in water.
The image below shows how radiation can spread through an environment. It's important to model how radiation spreads in order to conclude quantities that will eventually reach living organisms. For example, radiation can affect plants, terrestrial and aquatic. Aquatic plants can lead to contaminated fish while terrestrial plants can lead to animals being contaminated, like the radioactive deer found at Oak Ridge National Lab. By modeling radiation, scientists can determine whether there's any cause for concern to begin with.
Also, here's a really interesting article about why organizations like the FDA are important and just remember, you shouldn't be ingesting nuclear material without asking about how fast it will decay. Things like medical tracers are designed specifically so that it will leave your body within days so you're safe.
I really like the graphic showing the man made vs natural radioactivity in the ocean, it gives a good perspective. Where is all that potassium in the ocean coming from?
ReplyDeleteI had the exact same thought on potassium. This paper written by D. A. Webb in the field of zoology, http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/16/2/178.full.pdf, cleared things up for me. Still very surprising though.
DeleteThat's really interesting! I didn't really have an answer! Thank you Kian!
DeleteI like the graphic you used showing all of the different possible pathways and how they end up reaching humans. It's crazy how many different ways there are for radiation to reach us. And yes I agree no one should ingest anything knowingly before knowing what it is and what it will do. Fun fact, there is a nuclear medicine gastrointestinal test where a radioactive tracer is injected into eggs which are then cooked and made into an egg sandwich for the patient to eat, and then watch move through their system to look for any issues digesting.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that is perhaps one of the most interesting (read: weird) medical test I've heard of! It does make sense because you digest fluids quite differently than solid food so it would track your GI tract. It's amazing what radioactive tracers allow the medical industry to do in order to determine what it is that's making people sick!
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