• April 27, 2024

This Tuesday, August 6, marks the 68th anniversary of the launch of nuclear bombs Hiroshima and of Nagasaki (August 9), occurred in 1945. Thousands of people died from the bomb and the effects after the exposure of nuclear radiation.

We briefly explain what the radiation does to the body according to data collected from Health and Environmental Issues Linked to the Nuclear Fuel Chain of the National Environment Council of Canada.

The alpha, beta, gamma ray and X-ray particles, they have a characteristic in common, they have the capacity to ionize the matter through which they pass. The property of ionizing means that said elements or "photons" if they happen to pass through some type of body, increase the ability of said body to conduct electric current.

Ions are very reactive, when these particles penetrate into matter, they create thousands of reactive ions in their path. The electromagnetic energy that generate, leads to many chain reactions that form new ion particles.

In any material exposed to electrically charged ions, the property of conducting electric current will be provided. But in living tissues, ionization can cause severe biological damage, since the organic molecules are exposed to random damage due to the breakdown of chemical bonds, including the DNA molecules that contain the genetic information of the cells.

Uranium is a natural substance that when exposed to specific emissions of certain particles (such as free neutrons) can create new elements (synthetic elements made by man) such as plutonium and neptunium. The new elements produced in nuclear reactors also cause serious problems of radioactive waste because they have a long life, they could even last in the environment until half a million years

These substances have the property of triggering more energy over time than the original energy due to chain reactions they produce.

Discovery of nuclear fission

In December 1938 in Berlin, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman bombarded a sample of uranium with neutrons, hoping to create a new chemical element. But the result was not as expected. A year later it would be discovered that when the U-235 atom absorbs the neutron, it becomes so incredibly unstable that it "breaks" or "fission" into fragments. This is called Nuclear fision.

Plutonium-239 is one of the nuclear explosives from which many of the world's nuclear bombs are made. The Nagasaki bomb was made with Plutonium.

Although radiation was not discovered until the 19th century, it is not a new phenomenon. All living beings are exposed to certain levels of radiation that the Earth emits naturally. Even TV and radio emit some kind of light radiation.

Some harmful effects of exposure to radiation can affect health, some of them are:

• Disorders in the blood cells , especially in the cells located in the bone marrow, since they are immature cells and highly susceptible to damage by radiation. In contrast, more mature cells tend to be more resistant (except lymphocytes).

More harmful effects

• Cancer and a short life, radiation burns often result in cancer. There are even studies from the 1940s, where it is shown that radiologists had an incidence of leukemia 9 times higher than the normal rate. X-rays They emit a slight radiation in the body, which is why pregnant women are advised not to take any plaque.
• Physical deformations
• Anemia and septic infections.
• Cancer in the bones
• Lung cancer
• Hurt (mutations ) in genes and chromosomes, such damages can often be inherited to future generations. Causing diseases such as Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome that involves Mental retardation and damages in the psychomotor development.
• Premature aging (not yet proven)
• Among other conditions, especially different types of cancer.

A recent article published in the Chicago Tribune mentions that around 14 thousand 500 people die annually of some type of cancer related to exposure to too much radiation.