Principles of Biological Impact of Ionizing Radiation Effects

This essay delves into the principles of the biological impact of ionizing radiation, exploring how it affects the human body at both the cellular and tissue levels. The assignment discusses various factors influencing the severity of radiation effects, including the type and dose of radiation, the exposed body part, individual age, and biological differences. It examines the mechanisms of radiation's impact, such as apoptosis and cell death, and how radiation affects cell growth, multiplication, and chromosomal stability, leading to mutations. The essay also covers the somatic effects of radiation, including cancer and adverse effects on embryos and fetuses, and concludes by emphasizing the importance of understanding these factors for safe radiation practices.

Running head: EFFECT OF RADIATION
PRINCIPLES OF THE BIOLOGICAL IMPACT OF THE IONIZING RADIATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1EFFECT OF RADIATION
Ionizing radiation is consisting of particles and these particles contain huge amount of
energy that ionizes the medium through which it passes. The World Health Organization also
defines the ionizing radiation and states that it is the energy that removes the tightly bound
electrons from the orbit of it and causes the atom to become charged or ionized (Parsons 2014).
In this assignment the principles of biological effects of ionizing radiation, its theories and
special features on the cellular and tissue level will be discussed.
The biological effect of ionizing radiation on the people are dependent on several features
and these features are type of radiation, the dose size received by the individual, the part
of the body exposed to the radiation, the age of the individual involved and finally the biological
differences (Soontornpipit 2012). They type of radiation involves determines the extent of the
effect. x-ray, alpha, beta and gamma rays are differentiated on the basis of their energy potential
and therefore the tissue or cell penetration level also varies among themselves. Further, their
ability to transmit directly or indirectly the tissues also varies depending on their energy content.
On the other hand, the higher the dose of radiation received by the individual, the more the effect
it will incur upon him (Girdhani, Sachs and Hlatky 2013). The human tissue, is able to perceive a
higher amount of radiation, however, if the same dose is provided to a monger time, then the
effect can also be witnessed in human tissue. According to Mettler (2012), the human body parts
have different level of radiation absorption. Where the hand and feet of human body can absorb
higher amount of radiation, torso and blood forming tissues are highly sensitive of radiation
energy. Recent studies have revealed that several people have higher ability to pass through
radiating energies whereas others are highly sensitive to such action. As the person proceeds to
aging process, the cell division process slows and therefore, radiation energies are unable t incur
adverse effects on the individuals.

2EFFECT OF RADIATION
While discussing the principal cellular and tissue level effect of radiation, it should be
mentioned that there are two mechanisms trough which, radiation affects a cell. These are
apoptosis and the second is programmed cell death or interphase death (Kamiya et al. 2015). The
radiation can affect a cells progression, growth, multiplication and in each phase of cell growth
and development, radiation can incur its effects. Radiation induced in reproduction failure,
induction of irreversible G1/S phase arrest are several type of effect through which the effect of
ionizing radiation can be seen on the human body cellular level (Stewart et al. 2012). Further on
chromosomal level, two type of aberrations are witnessed, the first aberration is termed as
unstable aberration and it lethal for dividing cells, whereas the second aberration is stable and
this includes changes in mall chromosomal sections, its deletions, translocation and hence, cell
division and proliferation are affected. According to Kamiya et al. (2015), it should be noted that
such deletion and translocations are responsible for cellular mutations. Therefore, the effect of
ionizing radiation on human body tissue and cellular level are also dependent on the duration of
expose and the dose of it (Stewart et al. 2012).
The dose of radiation has been modified by professionals so that in occupational and non-
occupational services, these radiations can be used to help mankind. However there are several
side effects of such doses. The effects of high dose of radiation on humans are changes in the
blood count, vomiting whereas other higher dose are used for medical care such as 480 to 540
level are used in supportive care system. Therefore it should be noted that not each exposure
leads to death/ However the effect varies depending on the dose to which the group of people are
exposed and the area of exposure. Whereas, the higher dose in care can also affect the human
body and leads to skin burn, sterility, cataracts, hair loss and many more. The somatic effect of
radiation is cancer as the cell lost the ability of apoptosis and tumor cells starts proliferation

3EFFECT OF RADIATION
without any barrier to it. The adverse effect of radiation can also be seen on embryo or fetus as it
leads to growth retardation, abnormalities related to fetus development, cancer in children and
also leads to intrauterine death (Stewart et al. 2012).
While concluding the assignment, it should be mentioned that the adverse effect of
radiation depends on the dose, level of radiation, type of radiation, the skin exposed and the age
of the individual. In this assignment, all these factors are discussed in details with the effect of
radiation on cellular and tissue level of the human body.

4EFFECT OF RADIATION
References
Girdhani, S., Sachs, R. and Hlatky, L., 2013. Biological effects of proton radiation: what we
know and don't know. Radiation research, 179(3), pp.257-272.
Kamiya, K., Ozasa, K., Akiba, S., Niwa, O., Kodama, K., Takamura, N., Zaharieva, E.K.,
Kimura, Y. and Wakeford, R., 2015. Long-term effects of radiation exposure on health. The
lancet, 386(9992), pp.469-478.
Mettler, F.A., 2012. Medical effects and risks of exposure to ionising radiation. Journal of
Radiological Protection, 32(1), p.N9.
Parsons, K., 2014. Human thermal environments: the effects of hot, moderate, and cold
environments on human health, comfort, and performance. CRC press.
Soontornpipit, P., 2012. Effects of radiation and SAR from wireless implanted medical devices
on the human body. Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand= Chotmaihet
thangphaet, 95, pp.S189-97.
Stewart, F.A., Akleyev, A.V., Hauer-Jensen, M., Hendry, J.H., Kleiman, N.J., Macvittie, T.J.,
Aleman, B.M., Edgar, A.B., Mabuchi, K., Muirhead, C.R. and Shore, R.E., 2012. ICRP
publication 118: ICRP statement on tissue reactions and early and late effects of radiation in
normal tissues and organs–threshold doses for tissue reactions in a radiation protection
context. Annals of the ICRP, 41(1), pp.1-322.