Ionizing Radiation Hazards among Radiology Health Team

Abstract

Ionizing radiation has sufficient energy to cause chemical changes in cells and damage them, some cells may die or become abnormal. Its hazards are classified into two main types’ stochastic effects and non-stochastic effects. Stochastic effects are associated with long-time of exposure with low level of ionizing radiation dose that cause different types of cancer such as leukemia and hereditary effects. Non-stochastic effects appear in cases of exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation dose that cause radiation sickness as nausea, vomiting, general weakness, hair loss or diminished organ function and reproductive effects such as sterility (WHO, 2020). The hazards of exposure to ionizing radiation were recognized shortly after Roentgen’s discovery of the X-ray in 1895. Acute skin reactions were observed in many individuals working with early X-ray generators, and by 1902 the first radiation-induced cancer was reported arising in an ulcerated area of the skin. Within a few years, a large number of such skin cancers had been observed, and the first report of leukemia in five radiation workers appeared in 1911. Many experimental and epidemiologic studies have since confirmed the oncogenic