
They will ask about your symptoms, do blood tests, and may use a device that measures radiation. What are the treatments for acute radiation sickness?īefore they start treatment, health care professionals need to figure out how much radiation your body absorbed. But it can slightly increase your overall risk of cancer. In some cases, ARS causes death in the following days or weeks.Įxposure to low levels of radiation in the environment does not cause immediate health effects. How soon they get sick again, which symptoms they have, and how sick they get depends on the amount of radiation they received. Those symptoms will go away and the person will seem healthy for a little while. The symptoms of ARS include headache and diarrhea. It may also lead to acute radiation syndrome (ARS, or "radiation sickness"). Infants, children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems are more vulnerable to health effects than healthy adults.īeing exposed to a lot of radiation over a short period of time, such as from a radiation emergency, can cause skin burns.

A fetus is most vulnerable to the effects of radiation.

Where the radiation concentrates in the body and how long it stays there.How you were exposed, such as through skin contact, swallowing or breathing it in, or having rays pass through your body.The amount of damage that exposure to radiation can cause depends on several factors, including: This can cause serious health problems, including cancer. But too much radiation can damage tissues by changing cell structure and damaging DNA. So our bodies are designed to deal with the low levels we're exposed to every day. Radiation has been around us throughout our evolution. What are the health effects of radiation exposure? Other sources are man-made, such as x-rays, radiation therapy to treat cancer, and electrical power lines.

Background radiation can also come from outer space and the sun. These radioactive minerals are in the ground, soil, water, and even our bodies. Most of it forms naturally from minerals. What are the sources of radiation exposure?īackground radiation is all around us all the time.
