Why are gamma rays more dangerous outside the skin?

Answer 1

Gamma radiation can cause serious problems to the body. If you come in contact with high levels of radiation it can cause serious illness and death. Possible symptoms include nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, dizziness and disorientation, weakness, fatigue, hair loss, bloody vomit and stools, infections, poor wound healing and low blood pressure.

Answer 2

Gamma rays are the most energetic form of radiation and has the ability to penetrate your body and destroy tissue. It is also a carcinogen and can cause the genetic information (DNA) inside the cells of your body to suffer a mutation. The chance of a mutation happening naturally is 1 in a million- the odds go down a lot more if one is exposed to gamma rays.

Answer 3

The problem is not that gamma radiation is harmful per se. Indeed, all radiation is harmful in high enough dosages or for long enough periods. The problem is that unlike alpha and beta radiation, which are particulate (helium atoms and electrons, respectively), gamma radiation is in the form of rays (photon rays, to be specific) and are such much more difficult to properly shield and contain.

Answer 4

Gamma radiation is very deeply penetrating and is ionizing. The result of this is that it breaks apart many different kinds of molecules. If it breaks DNA molecules, for example, this can cause problems. When this happens, cells try to repair themselves. If this fails, they often die, but sometimes they replicate themselves with bad genetic code, and this can cause tumors or cancer.

Answer 5

Gamma rays have the highest frequency and lowest wavelength out of all the other waves in the electromagnetic spectrum. As a consequence, they also have the highest amount of energy of all the other waves. The combination of high energy and small wavelength means that gamma rays can pass through skin and cause damage on a cellular level. When gamma rays pass through cells, they can cause them the mutate, which leads to cancer.

Answer 6

Gamma radiation is not necessarily more dangerous outside the skin. For most cases, the presence of skin does not matter, because gamma radiation penetrates skin easily.

It is more correct to say that alpha radiation is less dangerous outside the skin, because the skin, even a sheet of paper, or even a few inches of air, is enough to stop alpha radiation. As a result, the issue is that alpha radiation is more dangerous when ingested because it is closer to more sensitive cells than it would be outside the skin, but it does not make sense to claim that gamma radiation is more dangerous outside the skin.

Answer 7

They are the most dangerous of all forms of electromagnetic radiation, but they are only dangerous in sufficient amounts.

Answer 8

Because they collide with particles in your body and this changes the particle sequence and can cause mutations for example cancer.