Radiation Protection Basics
Three basic principles apply to all types of ionizing radiation. If we have rules or standards that limit the amount of radiation a person can receive in a given situation to develop, we examine how these concepts can affect the exposure of a person.
Time
The amount of exposure to radiation increases and decreases over time people spend near the source of radiation.
In general, we believe that the exposure time for how long a person close to radioactive materials. It is easy to understand how the external time (live) to minimize exposure. Gamma and X-rays are the main concern for external exposure.
However, if radioactive material gets into your body, you can not abandon it. You must wait until the expiry or until your body can eliminate. When this occurs, the biological half-life of radionuclide regulates the duration of exposure. Biological half the amount of time it takes the body half of the elimination of radionuclides originally present. The alpha and beta particles are the main concern for internal exposure.
How does EPA use the concept of time in radiation protection?
If we have a standard that increased radiation risk for a certain period, we apply the concept of time. For example, we often ExpressCard positions in terms of dose commitment. A committed dose is that which represents the continuous exposure over long time (like 30, 50 or 70 years). It refers to the exposure received from radioactive material that enters and remains in the body for many years.
Then, the risk of exposure in a position to judge, we consider the amount of time a person can spend in the field of pollution. For example, in assessing the potential exposure to radon in a home, we estimate how long people are likely to spend in the basement.
Distance
People who are farther from a radiation source, the lower their exposure.
How close to a radiation source can be obtained without a high exposure? It depends on the energy of radiation and the size (or activity) of the source. Distance is a major concern in the case of gamma rays as they travel long distances. The alpha and beta particles do not have enough energy to travel very far.
In general, if you double the distance, you reduce the risk by a factor of four. Reduce by half the distance to increase exposure by a factor of four.
Why does exposure change more rapidly than the distance?
The area of the circle depends on the distance from the center to the edge of the circle (radius). It is proportional to the square of the radius. Therefore, if the radius doubles the area four times larger.
Consider the radiation source and a bare bulb. The lamp emits light in all directions in a circle. The light energy is distributed evenly over the surface of the circle. If the radius doubles, the radiation is spread over four times more space, so that the dose is only one quarter as much. (Also, if the distance from the source increases, the likelihood that some gamma rays will lose their energy.
The exposure of an individual sitting 4 feet from a radiation source will be 1/4 the exposure of an individual sitting 2 feet from the same source
How does EPA use the concept of distance in radiation protection?
We also consider the distance in the analysis of potential risks of a source. If a person on a contaminated site, or working around radioactive materials, we evaluate how exposures vary as the person closer or further away from the radiation source.
Shielding
More shielding around a radiation source, the smallest of the exhibition.
Shielding simply means something that absorbs radiation between you and the source of radiation (but with another person to absorb the radiation are not considered as a shield). The amount of shielding required to protect against different types of radiation depends on the amount of energy they have.
(Alpha) A thin layer of lightweight materials such as paper, or even dead cells in the outer layer of human skin provides adequate protection of alpha particles, because it can not penetrate. However, living tissue in the body, does not protect against alpha emitters inhaled or ingested.
(Beta) Others include heavy clothing is necessary to protect against beta emitters. Some beta particles can penetrate and burn the skin.
(Gamma) Thick, dense shielding such as lead, are needed to protect against gamma radiation. More energy gamma rays, the thicker the line should be. X-rays are a similar challenge, if the radiology technicians often provide patients with medical and dental X-ray lead aprons in other parts of their bodies covered.
How does EPA use the concept of shielding in radiation protection?
We take into account the type of shielding can be provided by the ground when we sites that are contaminated or used for the disposal of radioactive material to evaluate. We also consider the shielding effect of buildings for a person living or working on a site that has been deleted.
Since antiquity, philosophers and scientists interested in the fundamentals of our physical universe. In fact, the ancient Greeks were the first to believe that all matter in the universe must be made of small building blocks - or atoms. Start with the first specialists in science throughout history and in this century, scientists have been eager to learn more about the atom and how to control it.
Significant Discoveries
It was not until the latter part of the 19th century that scientists really began to progress in the study of atomic structure and radiation.
During the 1600s, Sir Isaac Newton proved his theories of gravitation. Marie and Pierre Curie began their studies in chemistry and physics, and Dmitri Mendeleev presented the periodic table of elements. Just before the turn of the century, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered the fundamental properties of X-rays, the properties of ionizing radiation and the possibility of using radiation in medicine.
Finally, in 1896, Henri Becquerel announced the discovery of radioactivity in the Academy of Sciences in Paris. In the early 1900s the study of the radiation is a widely accepted scientific enterprise.
New Dangers Come with Discoveries
But these discoveries were not without price. Scientists learned that the radiation is a source of energy and medicine, it may be a potential threat to human health if not properly treated. In fact, the pioneers in the investigation late radiation radiation-induced diseases (overexposure). For example, Thomas Edison worker who died of radiation-induced cancer resulting from excessive exposure to X-ray As new uses of radioactive elements have been discovered, potentially fatal cases of excessive exposure increased. For example, during the First World War, radium-based paint (a mixture of radium and phosphorus) was used for military aircraft instruments to shine in the dark so they would be more visible to drivers at night.
After the war was over, the industry that supports that technology has changed their clocks painting business-to-the-dark and the watch face. Young women who worked in this mission would be an art form with their brushes by pulling the brushes cost of crossing between the lips before applying paint on watch dials. Unknowingly, they were eating small amounts of radium and damage their bodies.
Over a period of two years, nine women who had worked as a dial painters dead serious, unexplained anemia, accompanied by destructive lesions of the mouth and jaws. A dentist who had treated one of these women, and finally the link between inflammation of the bone marrow, and the radium dial painting.
Meeting the Need for Radiation Protection
In 1970, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and radiation protection became a part of EPA's responsibility. Today, EPA's Radiation Protection Division (RPD) is responsible for protecting the public's health and the environment from undue exposure to radiation. This is accomplished by setting safety standards and guidelines. Now, organizations that deal with ionizing radiation must meet these standards to comply with the law.
In 1915 the British Roentgen Society adopted a resolution to protect people against excessive exposure to X-ray This was probably the first organized attempt to protect against radiation.
In 1922, British American organizations had rules of protection. Information and education have increased, and throughout the 1920s and 30 have been developed guidelines and many more organizations were formed for protection against radiation in the United States and the address abroad.
Radiation was based primarily non-government until the late 1940s. After the Second World War, the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear reactors caused the federal government playing politics with human exposure to determine. In 1959, the Federal Council adopted radiation. The Council was responsible for three things:
1. advise the President of the United States on matters of radiological consequences for public health.
2. provide guidance to all federal agencies to establish standards for radiation.
3. work with Member States on matters of radiation.
In 1970, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and protection against radiation, which is part of the responsibility of the EPA. Today, EPA's Radiation Protection Division (RPD) is responsible for protecting public health and the environment from unnecessary exposure to radiation. This is achieved by setting safety standards and guidelines. Now, organizations dealing with ionizing radiation to these standards under the law.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Gofman from investigating radiation risks
Being ousted from Livermore didn't stop Gofman from investigating radiation risks. His 1985 book X-rays: Health Effects of Common Exams, co-written with Egan O'Connor, stated that 75 percent of cancer cases are caused by medical radiation, including X-rays, mammograms and CT scans. Doctors howled about how wrong and inflammatory Gofman was--while giving no evidence proving safety. He had now incurred the wrath of both of his chosen professions: physics and medicine. But he never stopped speaking out against the human toll radiation exacts, predicting that nearly 1 million people would develop cancer from Chernobyl, far more than any other estimate.
Gofman was certainly a courageous scientist. But was he right, and is his work relevant?
Are even small radiation doses harmful? A 2005 blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences examined hundreds of articles and concluded that no safe threshold exists. The panel used reports from up to fifty years ago, when pelvic X-rays to pregnant women were found to raise the chance that the fetus would die of cancer as a child.
Could up to 32,000 Americans a year die from cancer from reactor emissions? A 1994 General Accounting Office report to Senator John Glenn estimated that the maximum exposure permitted by the government to every American would result in a lifetime premature cancer death risk of one in 300--or 1 million deaths, or about 14,000 cancer deaths a year--which fits Gofman's prediction, made when limits were higher.
Gofman was certainly a courageous scientist. But was he right, and is his work relevant?
Are even small radiation doses harmful? A 2005 blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences examined hundreds of articles and concluded that no safe threshold exists. The panel used reports from up to fifty years ago, when pelvic X-rays to pregnant women were found to raise the chance that the fetus would die of cancer as a child.
Could up to 32,000 Americans a year die from cancer from reactor emissions? A 1994 General Accounting Office report to Senator John Glenn estimated that the maximum exposure permitted by the government to every American would result in a lifetime premature cancer death risk of one in 300--or 1 million deaths, or about 14,000 cancer deaths a year--which fits Gofman's prediction, made when limits were higher.
important points in the promotional video for your business
Corporate videos can be downloaded from websites, which not only saves money in distribution costs, but provides 24 hour worldwide access.
A further advantage of corporate video is that it allows for voiceovers to be translated into a variety of languages. As visual cues are used in conjunction with the voiceover, the language sounds natural and appealing.
The winner of the 2002 Regional Exporter of the Year Awards, the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, strongly agrees with the use of corporate video production to boost export sales.
John Williams, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory's marketing manager, says "We are very proud of our Factory and our picturesque location. It makes a lot of sense to show our best attributes to their advantage and the way to do that is through a corporate video."
"We've found corporate video to be extremely flexible. I can travel overseas and show a DVD quality video to potential clients on my notebook computer".
"We had a short promotional video created that was slotted into our Powerpoint presentation which we presented to a large Japanese dairy importer. It really gave us the competitive edge and helped us win a large multi-million dollar contract".
Justin Howden, an International Marketing specialist from Marketing and Investment Partners, also advocates using corporate videos when marketing overseas.
"For companies that are undertaking trade marketing, corporate video is critical. It is vital to get trade onside when marketing overseas and corporate video is irreplaceable when trying to get distributors involved," he says.
"A successful corporate video is created by finding out what are the most important pieces of information that your target market wants to know. You need to unearth what 20% of information will give you an 80% kick in marketing terms. Once you've done this, you then need to focus on these important points in the promotional video".
Corporate video production is a powerful, convenient and cost effective way for overseas buyers to see what you have to offer. It is an innovative method that can encompass video, brochures, documents and website/email links into one small CD business card.
A further advantage of corporate video is that it allows for voiceovers to be translated into a variety of languages. As visual cues are used in conjunction with the voiceover, the language sounds natural and appealing.
The winner of the 2002 Regional Exporter of the Year Awards, the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, strongly agrees with the use of corporate video production to boost export sales.
John Williams, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory's marketing manager, says "We are very proud of our Factory and our picturesque location. It makes a lot of sense to show our best attributes to their advantage and the way to do that is through a corporate video."
"We've found corporate video to be extremely flexible. I can travel overseas and show a DVD quality video to potential clients on my notebook computer".
"We had a short promotional video created that was slotted into our Powerpoint presentation which we presented to a large Japanese dairy importer. It really gave us the competitive edge and helped us win a large multi-million dollar contract".
Justin Howden, an International Marketing specialist from Marketing and Investment Partners, also advocates using corporate videos when marketing overseas.
"For companies that are undertaking trade marketing, corporate video is critical. It is vital to get trade onside when marketing overseas and corporate video is irreplaceable when trying to get distributors involved," he says.
"A successful corporate video is created by finding out what are the most important pieces of information that your target market wants to know. You need to unearth what 20% of information will give you an 80% kick in marketing terms. Once you've done this, you then need to focus on these important points in the promotional video".
Corporate video production is a powerful, convenient and cost effective way for overseas buyers to see what you have to offer. It is an innovative method that can encompass video, brochures, documents and website/email links into one small CD business card.
investment companies can make is by providing prospective
But how do you market your company successfully to overseas buyers? What can you do to provide the right information to prospective clients that is informative and engaging? How can you stand out from the crowd?
The most common promotional approach is to provide brochures. While brochures do play an important role, they can be uninspiring and ill equipped to convey a real feeling for what an organisation does and how they operate.
Furthermore, when brochures are translated into other languages it is commonly agreed that even the best translations are cumbersome and not reflective of how that particular language is used. This often means that international prospects feel less inclined to read brochures in depth.
So how do you show prospective clients how your product is made? What can you do to highlight your product range and its associated benefits?
A proven promotional method is corporate video production. The combination of moving vision with sound, allows complex messages to be communicated in a far superior way to that of any written information.
Research has found that video can be up to four times more effective than a printed brochure. Given that 80% of the information we recall is visual, it is understandable why audiovisual materials are so successful in getting messages across to viewers.
The best investment companies can make is by providing prospective clients with their corporate video on a VHS tape or a menu driven DVD disk or CDROM disk (which is like the menu option on a movie DVD).
The most common promotional approach is to provide brochures. While brochures do play an important role, they can be uninspiring and ill equipped to convey a real feeling for what an organisation does and how they operate.
Furthermore, when brochures are translated into other languages it is commonly agreed that even the best translations are cumbersome and not reflective of how that particular language is used. This often means that international prospects feel less inclined to read brochures in depth.
So how do you show prospective clients how your product is made? What can you do to highlight your product range and its associated benefits?
A proven promotional method is corporate video production. The combination of moving vision with sound, allows complex messages to be communicated in a far superior way to that of any written information.
Research has found that video can be up to four times more effective than a printed brochure. Given that 80% of the information we recall is visual, it is understandable why audiovisual materials are so successful in getting messages across to viewers.
The best investment companies can make is by providing prospective clients with their corporate video on a VHS tape or a menu driven DVD disk or CDROM disk (which is like the menu option on a movie DVD).
business with the government issuing repeated denials
With scientists like Linus Pauling and Andrei Sakharov warning about hazards of bomb fallout, and with the government issuing repeated denials, a moral crisis was imminent for Gofman. Soon after he took over the lab, an official at Livermore asked him to help suppress publication of the work of AEC scientist Harold Knapp, who concluded that doses of radioactive iodine from bomb tests in Utah were much higher than the AEC had publicly admitted. Despite the warning that "we can't afford to have him publish that evidence," Gofman reviewed Knapp's analysis with his staff, and found it accurate. Refusing to yield to political heat, Gofman urged publication of the data, which the AEC reluctantly allowed.
Nuclear tensions eased after the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, signed by President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, banned atmospheric nuclear tests. But the treaty did not mean the end of the battle over fallout's harm. In 1969 University of Pittsburgh physicist Ernest Sternglass startled many when he published an article in Esquire magazine showing that for the first time in the twentieth century, the steady rate of decline in US infant death rates had halted as bombs were tested in the atmosphere. Sternglass calculated that 400,000 additional American infants died in the 1950s and early '60s, and suggested that fallout was the cause.
The AEC called on Gofman and his colleague Arthur Tamplin to debunk the article. Although Gofman later acknowledged that "Sternglass may have been right," the two estimated that excess infant deaths were about 4,000, not 400,000. But even that wasn't enough for AEC officials, who told them to publish only a critique with no estimates. They ignored the AEC and published the paper using the 4,000 figure.
By now, Gofman had built a reputation for being an obstacle to the AEC party line, but he had yet to be disciplined. A more cautious person might have stopped insisting that nuclear power was harming people, to preserve his professional status. But that wasn't John Gofman. Just months after the Sternglass controversy, he turned to radiation routinely emitted by nuclear power reactors, the darlings of the nuclear industry, heralded as a "peaceful" use of the atom.
In late 1969 Gofman and Tamplin were among the first scientists to oppose nuclear power in a paper asserting that even low-dose radiation harmed humans. "I realized that the entire nuclear power program was based on a fraud--namely that there was a 'safe' amount of radiation, a permissible dose that wouldn't hurt anybody," recalled Gofman. The duo calculated a worst-case scenario in which 32,000 additional Americans would die of cancer each year if everybody received the permissible AEC dose from reactors.
Nuclear tensions eased after the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, signed by President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, banned atmospheric nuclear tests. But the treaty did not mean the end of the battle over fallout's harm. In 1969 University of Pittsburgh physicist Ernest Sternglass startled many when he published an article in Esquire magazine showing that for the first time in the twentieth century, the steady rate of decline in US infant death rates had halted as bombs were tested in the atmosphere. Sternglass calculated that 400,000 additional American infants died in the 1950s and early '60s, and suggested that fallout was the cause.
The AEC called on Gofman and his colleague Arthur Tamplin to debunk the article. Although Gofman later acknowledged that "Sternglass may have been right," the two estimated that excess infant deaths were about 4,000, not 400,000. But even that wasn't enough for AEC officials, who told them to publish only a critique with no estimates. They ignored the AEC and published the paper using the 4,000 figure.
By now, Gofman had built a reputation for being an obstacle to the AEC party line, but he had yet to be disciplined. A more cautious person might have stopped insisting that nuclear power was harming people, to preserve his professional status. But that wasn't John Gofman. Just months after the Sternglass controversy, he turned to radiation routinely emitted by nuclear power reactors, the darlings of the nuclear industry, heralded as a "peaceful" use of the atom.
In late 1969 Gofman and Tamplin were among the first scientists to oppose nuclear power in a paper asserting that even low-dose radiation harmed humans. "I realized that the entire nuclear power program was based on a fraud--namely that there was a 'safe' amount of radiation, a permissible dose that wouldn't hurt anybody," recalled Gofman. The duo calculated a worst-case scenario in which 32,000 additional Americans would die of cancer each year if everybody received the permissible AEC dose from reactors.
International business today necessitates people travel
International business today necessitates people travel all over the world for meetings, negotiations and other business functions. Along the way one will meet numerous people that all have the potential to give recommendations, pass over work or provide some sort of benefit. The business card is the key to remaining in their sphere of contacts.
Increasingly business cards need to be translated into foreign languages to ensure the receiver understands who you are and who you work for. However, translating a business card is not a simple as literally translating one language into another. There are many linguistic and cultural considerations one must take into account. In order to assist those needing their business cards translated the following ten tips are presented:
1 – Always have your business cards translated by a translator or translation agency. Your neighbour or friend may be capable of translating but to ensure the most suitable and professional language is used, use an expert.
2 – Try and have business cards printed only on one side and in one language. In many countries people will write on the back of your card. However, this is not always necessary and if there is a considerable amount of text you may use both sides.
3 – Keep your business card simple. All the receiver needs to know is who you are, your title, your company and how to contact you. The rest is superfluous. This also helps keep your translation costs down.
4 – Ensure the translator translates your title accurately. In some cases, due to the Western liking of complicated titles such “Associate Director of Employer Solutions”, this is not always easy. It is critical the receiver understands your position within a company. Therefore simplify your title as much as possible.
5 – Do not translate your address. All this does is help the reader pronounce your address. If they ever posted you anything the postman will be scratching his/her head.
6 - It can be useful to transliterate names including company names. This then helps the receiver pronounce them properly.
7 – Make sure numbers are arranged in the correct format. For example, if for any reason you need to write a date on a business card consider the local equivalent for dates – i.e. in Europe dates are written as date/month/year or in the Islamic world the Hijri calendar is used.
Increasingly business cards need to be translated into foreign languages to ensure the receiver understands who you are and who you work for. However, translating a business card is not a simple as literally translating one language into another. There are many linguistic and cultural considerations one must take into account. In order to assist those needing their business cards translated the following ten tips are presented:
1 – Always have your business cards translated by a translator or translation agency. Your neighbour or friend may be capable of translating but to ensure the most suitable and professional language is used, use an expert.
2 – Try and have business cards printed only on one side and in one language. In many countries people will write on the back of your card. However, this is not always necessary and if there is a considerable amount of text you may use both sides.
3 – Keep your business card simple. All the receiver needs to know is who you are, your title, your company and how to contact you. The rest is superfluous. This also helps keep your translation costs down.
4 – Ensure the translator translates your title accurately. In some cases, due to the Western liking of complicated titles such “Associate Director of Employer Solutions”, this is not always easy. It is critical the receiver understands your position within a company. Therefore simplify your title as much as possible.
5 – Do not translate your address. All this does is help the reader pronounce your address. If they ever posted you anything the postman will be scratching his/her head.
6 - It can be useful to transliterate names including company names. This then helps the receiver pronounce them properly.
7 – Make sure numbers are arranged in the correct format. For example, if for any reason you need to write a date on a business card consider the local equivalent for dates – i.e. in Europe dates are written as date/month/year or in the Islamic world the Hijri calendar is used.
cornerstone of cardiology and cornerstone of cardiology.
Gofman's brilliance was evident early. His doctoral dissertation described co-discoveries of radioactive uranium-232 and -233, and protactinium-232 and -233, and the ability to transform uranium-233 into an atomic bomb. Soon after graduation, Gofman joined the Manhattan Project to help win the race with Nazi Germany for the first atomic bomb. His team at the University of California, Berkeley, made more than one milligram of plutonium--the most created to that point--leading to the plutonium bombs tested in New Mexico and used at Nagasaki.
After the war, Gofman settled in at Berkeley as a teacher and researcher, focusing not on radiation but coronary disease. His pioneering work on lipoproteins in the blood--HDL and LDL cholesterol--remains a cornerstone of cardiology. In 1974 the American College of Cardiology named him as one of the twenty-five leading researchers in the field over the previous quarter-century.
But the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union pulled Gofman back into the nuclear world. In the early 1950s the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) set up a nuclear weapons research lab at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, fifty miles from Berkeley. Gofman formed the lab's medical department and worked part-time for several years, helping with calculations on health effects and problems of nuclear war before returning to Berkeley.
After the war, Gofman settled in at Berkeley as a teacher and researcher, focusing not on radiation but coronary disease. His pioneering work on lipoproteins in the blood--HDL and LDL cholesterol--remains a cornerstone of cardiology. In 1974 the American College of Cardiology named him as one of the twenty-five leading researchers in the field over the previous quarter-century.
But the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union pulled Gofman back into the nuclear world. In the early 1950s the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) set up a nuclear weapons research lab at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, fifty miles from Berkeley. Gofman formed the lab's medical department and worked part-time for several years, helping with calculations on health effects and problems of nuclear war before returning to Berkeley.
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