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Contamination and irradiation
Specification references:
P4.2.1 Radioactive decay and nuclear radiation
P4.2.4 Radioactive contamination
P4.3 Hazards and uses of radioactive emissions and of background radiation (physics only)
Aims
In this exercise you will read text and answer questions relating to the processes
of contamination and irradiation by exposure to radioactive materials.
You will apply knowledge and understanding of radioactive decay to different
situations involving contamination and irradiation and you will evaluate the
relative advantages and disadvantages in each case.
Learning objectives
After completing this activity, you should be able to:
define the terms contamination and irradiation
describe the difference between contamination and irradiation
describe how radioactive materials are used as tracers or in cancer treatment
apply knowledge and understanding to determine the relative hazards associated with contamination
and irradiation
explain how the half-life of a material affects the hazard associated with it
calculate the percentage of the background radiation that is cosmic rays
evaluate contamination and irradiation in the treatment of cancer.
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Information
Irradiation
Shining visible radiation from a torch beam onto a hand lights the hand up because the hand
has been exposed to light.
Exposing objects to beams of radiation is called irradiation. The term applies to all types of
radiation including radiation from the nuclei of atoms.
Irradiation from radioactive decay can damage living cells. This can be put to good use as well
as being a hazard.
Radioactive beams can be used to preserve fruit by exposing the fruit to a radioactive source,
typically Cobalt 60. The gamma rays emitted by the cobalt will destroy any bacteria on the fruit
but will not alter the fruit in any significant way.
Irradiation does not cause radioactivity.
The method can also be used to sterilise surgical instruments.
Contamination
Contamination occurs if an object has a radioactive material introduced into (or onto) it. An
apple exposed to the radiation from cobalt-60 is irradiated but an apple with cobalt-60 injected
into it is contaminated.
As with irradiation, contamination can be very useful as well as being potentially harmful.
Doctors can deliberately contaminate a patient's body when it will help with diagnosis with a
radioactive source, such as:
drinking a radioactive mixture (barium meal) will make soft tissue such as your intestine show up
on an x-ray
technetium-99 is a radioactive isotope that can be introduced into the body to make soft tissue
such as the brain or the thyroid show up on a scanner
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Irradiation versus contamination
The two processes of irradiation and contamination are often confused. However they are very
different and useful in their own right.
Irradiation Contamination
Occurs when an object is exposed to a source Occurs if the radioactive source is on or in the
of radiation outside the object. object.
Doesn't cause the object to become A contaminated object will be radioactive for as
radioactive. long as the source is on or in it.
Can be blocked with suitable shielding or Once an object is contaminated, the radiation
moving away. cannot be blocked from it.
It can be very difficult to remove all of the
Stops as soon as the source is removed.
contamination.
Ionising radiations
Normally, atoms are neutral. They have the same number of protons in the nucleus as they
have electrons orbiting in the energy levels around the nucleus.
Atoms can, however, lose or gain electrons due to collisions or other interactions, often with
nuclear radiation. When they do, they form charged particles called ions:
if the atom loses one or more electrons, it becomes a positively-charged ion
if the atom gains one or more electrons, it becomes a negatively-charged ion
Radioactive materials are hazardous. Nuclear radiation can ionise chemicals within a body,
which changes the way the cells behave. It can also deposit large amounts of energy into the
body, which can damage or destroy cells completely. Ultraviolet, x-rays, alpha, beta and
gamma radiations are all examples of ionising radiations. Molecules in cells can be altered as
well as the DNA.
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Some of the effects that radiation has on a human body are shown below.
Eyes High doses can cause cataracts.
Radioactive iodine can build up and cause cancer, particularly during
Thyroid
growth.
Lungs Breathing in radioisotopes can damage DNA.
Stomach Radioactive isotopes can sit in the stomach and irradiate for a long time.
Reproductive organs High doses can cause sterility or mutations.
Skin Radiation can burn skin or cause cancer.
Bone marrow Radiation can cause leukaemia and other diseases of the blood.
What is cancer?
Normal body cells grow and divide to form new cells. Skin cells last a few weeks before they die
and fall off the body as dust, brain cells can last an entire lifetime.
The chemicals that form the genetic code in the cells can be altered by ionising radiations. This
can affect the way the cell divides and new cells may be formed before they are needed.
A large mass of tissue, containing these new unnecessary cells, is called a tumour.
Tumours may be benign. Benign tumours stay where they are and are relatively easy to
operate on and remove.
A malignant tumour contains cells that break away and travel through the blood system to other
parts of the body. These cells then go on to form new tumours and the cancer spreads.
Beams of gamma rays, called a gamma knife, can be used to destroy cancerous tumours deep
inside the body. The beams are aimed at the tumour from many different directions to maximise
the dose on the tumour but to minimise the dose on the surrounding soft tissue. This technique
can damage healthy tissue, so careful calculations are done to establish the best dose –
enough to destroy the tumour but not so much so that the healthy tissue is damaged.
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Questions
1 Look at the diagram below. Who is being contaminated and who is being
irradiated? Write the words ‘irradiation’ and ‘contamination’ in the gaps to
show your answer.
a Contamination happens when you take radioactive material inside your
body or if it is on your skin. (1 mark)
b Irradiation happens when there is radioactive material outside your body
that can reach you as waves. (1 mark)
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2 The pie chart shows the main sources of background radiation and the amount
each part makes up as a whole.
a What is the missing percentage for cosmic rays?
10%
(1 mark)
b State which of the background radiation sources shown here can lead to:
i contamination of the body
Food and drink
(2 marks)
ii irradiation of the body.
Artificial sources
(2 marks)
3 Read the text below and use it to answer the questions that follow.
Doctors inject patients with a radioactive isotope which travels around the body
and is absorbed by cells in the organs of the body. The isotope emits gamma
radiation which is then detected outside the body by a gamma camera. A common
example of such an isotope is technetium-99 which has a half-life of 6 hours.
Another example of radiation in a medical context is the use of the X-ray machine.
Patients receive a short burst of X-rays so that a picture can be taken of their
internal bone structure to look for breaks or fractures.
Explain where the text refers to:
a contamination
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Doctors inject patients with a radioactive isotope which travels around the body and is absorbed by
cell.
(2 marks)
b irradiation.
Patients receive a short burst of X-rays (2 marks)
4 A gamma knife is used to treat cancer as shown in the diagram below:
a Describe how the gamma knife works.
The gamma knife uses many beams of radiation from multiple angles by moveable gamma
sources to target one specific area of the brain. Each beam is too weak to damage healthy tissue but
where all the beams of radiation meet, they are all combined so they are strong enough to treat the
area.
(4 marks)
b Explain why the gamma knife can kill the cancer cells without killing the
healthy surrounding tissue.
This is because each ray alone is too weak to damage healthy tissue but where all the beams of
radiation meet, they are all combined so they are strong enough to treat the area.
(3 marks)
c State whether the person is being irradiated or contaminated by the
gamma knife.
Irradiation (1 mark)
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d Explain why a patient is more likely to develop cancer through
contamination than through irradiation.
This is because irradiation happens when there is radioactive material outside your body that can
reach you as waves whereas contamination happens when you take radioactive material inside your
body or if it is on your skin. Therefore contamination can harm your organs inside your body and can
access your lungs, heart and all important parts of your body so you are more likely to develop
cancer
(3 marks)
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