(classical music)
- Hey there, I'm Josh Clark,
and this is Brain Stuff and this is the brain stuff
where I explain to you, how radiation sickness works.
So, unless you, you know, work around nuclear activity
or are an enemy of the Russian State,
you probably don't have much to worry about as far as
exposure to radiation goes but,
there are situations where you could be exposed to harmful
doses like a nuclear meltdown, a nuclear explosion
even some medical equipment leaking
could expose you to a harmful dose of radiation.
Plus you can never know too much stuff. So here we go.
Not to freak everyone out but
radiation is everywhere all the time
and we're exposed to it on a constant basis.
Something that's called background radiation.
It's perfectly fine, don't worry about that.
But when we're talking about human exposure to radiation
we're talking about something that's measured in
what are called sieverts.
And sieverts take into account
not just how much radiation you're exposed to
but how much radiation we're been exposed to over time,
say a year.
The intensity of the radiation and the type of radiation
we were exposed to.
So for example, there's alpha particles.
These are low energy, radioactive particles
that actually are deflected off of our clothing.
The problem is we can still ingest them
and they can do terrible things to us, like cause
lung cancer and the like.
Beta particles are a little more energetic
and they're actually smaller than the alpha particles,
about 8,000 times smaller.
And they can actually penetrate our skin
which can create a lot of problems for us as well.
But the big daddies are called gamma rays.
They're not even particles, they're rays.
And they come at ya, big time, with high energy
and mess you up.
Like I said, we're exposed to background radiation
all the time, but it's not much to worry about.
In fact, the average background radiation a person
is exposed to is something like .00036 sieverts.
Which isn't a very big amount, especially considering
that the average CT Scan exposes a human being
to something like .01 sieverts.
The thing is, federal guidelines say that we shouldn't
be exposed to more than .05 sieverts within a year.
And it's not a big leap from that to the radiation sickness
dose, that begins at .75 sieverts.
And remember, when we're talking about radiation sickness,
we're saying cumulative amounts.
So when this stuff starts to build up,
you start to get sick.
Between three sieverts and 10 sieverts of exposure,
gives you about a 50% chance of dying within 30 days.
This will come after your hair falls out,
your wrecked with nausea,
you start to scars beneath your skin.
Perhaps the worst thing about radiation sickness is that
when you first show synonyms,
they only last for one to two and then you appear to be
getting better.
But you've actually entered what's called the latency period
where your body is getting worse and worse and worse,
as you get sicker and sicker and sicker.
And after say something like 30 days, you're in big trouble.
So what can you do to protect yourself
from radiation sickness.
Well, wearing a lead suit around everywhere,
all the time, is probably impractical,
but there are some steps you can take
in the real world, that will keep you safe.
And number one amongst them is, stay away from radiation.
If there's a radiation leak around your house,
experts say that you should go into a windowless room
and basically hide there until you run out of food
or somebody comes to get you.
And of course everybody, if you wanna know at home,
whether or not you've been exposed to enough sieverts
to make you sick, just look for the healthy green glow.
It's a dead give away.
So let us know, have you ever been
exposed to radiation sickness?
Leave a note in the comments.
We'd love to hear from you.
And while you're down there,
why not just subscribe to all of our Brain Stuff videos?
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