It was uranium that first proved the existence of radioactivity,
in experiments conducted in the late 19th century. It took another thirty years or so
to show exactly how dangerous radiation exposure was to humans, though. So, with that in mind,
what would happen if these extremely toxic substances were actually ingested?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
what would happen if you ate uranium?
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Uranium is a naturally occurring chemical element sought after for its unique nuclear properties.
It’s actually one of the easiest elements to get your hands on – not that you’d want
to get your hands on it without some protection. There are some important discrepancies to make,
though. Natural uranium mostly consists of the isotope uranium-238,
which is non-fissile - meaning that it cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction. However,
it can be transmuted into plutonium, which is fissile. About 0.7% of natural uranium
is uranium-235, which is already fissile; the term “enriched uranium” refers to uranium with
an increased percentage of this isotope, thanks to the removal of other isotopes.
Infamously, uranium was the key ingredient in Little Boy, the nuclear bomb the United States
dropped on Hiroshima in August, 1945. And it was also used in the Tsar Bomba,
the Soviet bomb that still holds the record as the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.
Furthermore, one by-product of using uranium in nuclear reactions is another volatile isotope,
caesium-137, the isotope that made the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 so dangerous. It was caesium
that created the radioactive fallout that ended up spreading around the world. We know,
then, that there are massive risks at play with this particular substance.
People who work with uranium on a regular basis need to wear protective suits,
though even this isn’t a perfect solution against ionizing radiation. All kinds of
measures are taken in uranium mining to protect workers, like mitigating how much dust they’re
exposed to and regularly checking what dose, if any, of harmful radiation they’ve been
subjected to. Although we can now limit the danger uranium poses to people who work with
it on a daily basis, then, those people are still strongly advised not to ingest
any of the naturally forming uranium isotopes found in the ground. In short, do not eat it.
But what if you did? And maybe not for careless or reckless reasons,
either. Perhaps uranium just gets into your food or water accidentally, since uranium mining has
been noted to release dangerous contaminants into the surrounding environment. For example,
there have even been incidents where vegetables have become contaminated if they’re grown in close
proximity to mining operations. Thankfully, studies also show that the amount of uranium
exposure one would get from consuming it in this way is negligible; it doesn’t pose
an immediate health risk. But, of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still protect
against it. After all, even in its non-isotope form, uranium is still a radioactive metal.
Nevertheless, when it comes to uranium being inside your body,
how much you should worry really depends on how much there is; on how much you, in this case,
eat. Unsurprisingly, the human body isn’t designed to digest uranium in any form,
but there are some that can be easily taken in. Yellowcake is a bright yellow uranium concentrate,
produced in a powder. It’s what’s eventually used to create the uranium used for fuel
from the unprocessed uranium ores found in the ground. And, as well as being mildly radioactive,
it also smells unpleasant. It clearly wouldn’t be appetizing but even if
you were to smell it… then you may well inhale it, which is equally ill-advised.
If it’s in your system, however it got there, your biggest, most immediate
problem is going to be kidney damage. Your kidneys are responsible for filtering your
blood and creating your urine out of the waste products your body doesn’t need. And broadly,
if anything happens to your urinary system, you’re in big trouble, and perhaps in need
of a kidney transplant or dialysis. Because your kidneys definitely can’t process and
filter uranium properly, they’re the first to be affected by the fact you’ve ingested
it. Even if uranium gets directly into your blood, such as via depleted uranium bullets,
you’re still going to suffer kidney symptoms first. Having said that, such bullets actually
have very little radioactivity, and therefore aren’t generally considered a ‘nuclear weapon’.
Still though, around 99.5% of any uranium you ingest will be passed through your digestive
system, with 0.5% being absorbed into your body. It can reside in your bones for weeks to years,
and through repeated exposure, the amount of uranium in your bones increases. Your brain
can even be affected eventually. If you ate and kept eating natural uranium then you’re
going to have a lot of issues, at a level way beyond any uranium exposure you’d get
from just working with it or living in an area where it’s mined. You’d essentially be
giving yourself kidney failure. Even if, on the dullest of bright sides,
there’s not any evidence that exposure to natural uranium causes cancer.
However, this is only naturally occurring uranium. History shows that with processed uranium,
it’s a very different story. Uranium ores in the ground go on to be processed and enriched,
creating dangerous isotopes which can definitely cause cancer. Again,
it was uranium in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki days later, Fat Man,
used plutonium, which is synthetically produced from uranium-235. And the
cancer rates of survivors of both bombings significantly increased in the decades after
1945. Depending on the precise circumstances, then, the risk of cancer is still very real.
If you’re eating volatile, radioactive isotopes, be they uranium isotopes or even more dangerous
ones, like caesium-137, you’re going to get into a lot of trouble very quickly. More specifically,
caesium-137 will continue to release large amounts of beta and gamma radiation while it’s in your
body, potentially causing radiation sickness in the short-term. If you were to literally eat it,
then all of that will be absorbed into your blood, and will then spread around
your body – notably to your muscles. The immediate symptoms of radiation sickness,
also known as “acute radiation syndrome”, primarily include nausea and vomiting,
including the vomiting of blood. And, eventually, if you have a large enough dose of radiation,
about 30 grays, you’re going to develop something called “cerebrovascular syndrome”,
something humans can rarely, if ever, survive. Once those symptoms appear, which include tremors
and seizures, death follows in two days at most, but usually a lot quicker. Even at lower doses,
you can also develop conditions that lead to the collapse of your circulatory system; lethal blood
poisoning; and anemia. Supposing you do manage to survive, the effects will nonetheless remain
with you forever, as your chances of getting thyroid cancer or leukemia hugely increase.
Once more, the only silver lining to all this is also quite a dark one. The good news is that
naturally occurring radioactive substances, like uranium, will never provide a high enough dose
of radiation to cause radiation sickness like this. But that means that if you were
exposed to these levels of radiation, it would always be as a result of some kind of disaster;
either a nuclear power plant disaster – like Chernobyl or Fukushima – or exposure
to nuclear bomb explosions, like a nuclear attack or nearby nuclear tests. Remember,
in the 1950s and 60s, nuclear weapons were often tested near populated areas. The notorious Nevada
Test Site just outside Las Vegas operated for years, and the fallout it created traveled all
the way to Utah, where it’s been noted that cancer incidence and mortality have
both increased. Luckily, nuclear tests like this are no longer conducted… so,
if you were ever at risk of developing radiation sickness today, you’d certainly know about it
quickly because you’ll have to have been close to a major incident; like a bombing or a meltdown.
For now, eating natural or depleted uranium just isn’t advisable. While it’s unlikely
we’ll ever stop mining uranium, because it’s so crucial in modern nuclear technologies....
we do need to remain careful around it. If you live near a uranium mine and are
scared you might have accidentally eaten trace amounts of the stuff, you will likely be okay.
But it’s still something we should all try to keep out of our diets as a rule. We know
(and have seen) the damage that it can do. And that’s what would happen if you ate uranium.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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