Does radioactivity cause a disease

Answer 1

From Mayoclinic.com

I experienced radiation sickness twice in my life, once when exposed to radioactive aircraft parts during a crash clean up and again when my wife received radioactice iodine for thyroid cancer treatment. The symptoms I experienced were nausea, fatigue. weakness, loss of apetite, and dehydration. If the doctor says stay away for a certain number of days do it.

Radiation sickness is illness that occurs from exposure to a largeamount of radiation. The exposure may be in a series of doses over time(chronic) or in a single large dose (acute).

Exposure to large doses of radiation can cause severe illness, andin some cases, death. The larger the dose, the greater your risk ofcancer and other adverse health effects, including cataracts and mentalretardation in children whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy.

Causes of radiation exposure may be accidental or intentional.Intentional sources of radiation exposure could occur if terroristsblew up a nuclear power plant, set off a nuclear bomb or detonated aso-called dirty bomb. A dirty bomb uses conventional explosives tospread radioactive materials, such as radioactive waste from a nuclearpower plant or sources of radiation from a medical facility.

Radiation also occurs naturally in the environment, so everyone isexposed to some daily radiation without harmful consequences. Routinecases of exposure to artificial radiation - living near a nuclear powerplant or undergoing medical tests, such as an X-ray - generally occurin amounts too small to cause any damage.

Treatment for radiation sickness is designed to relieve the signs and symptoms.

The signs and symptoms of radiation sickness may include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Skin burns (radiodermatitis)
• Weakness
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Fainting
• Dehydration
• Inflammation (swelling, redness or tenderness) of tissues
• Bleeding from your nose, mouth, gums or rectum
• Low red blood cell count (anemia)
• Hair loss

The signs and symptoms of radiation sickness and their severitydepend on how much radiation you receive and which tissues are exposed.The way in which you receive radiation - by breathing in radioactivematerial, by ingesting it with food or water, or by being exposed tointense beams of radiation - also has an effect on the signs andsymptoms of radiation sickness.

Answer 2

of course it causes eye damage crop damage skin cancer and many things