Running won't help

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jacob Morgan
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  "We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them." - Titus Livius, Roman historian.

When radiation is spoken of, most people are speaking of one type of radiation, ionizing. Ionizing radiation is emitted by almost everything we come into contact with. TVs, smoke detectors, almost all electronic devices and even rocks emit small amounts of ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation has the energy levels to develop cancerous cells within the body.

"You can't see, smell or taste ionizing radiation," said Tech. Sgt. Tammy Hintz, 436th Aerospace Medical Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of the radiation protection program. "You come into contact with it every day."

So why should people not be scared? If ionizing radiation exists everywhere, it is important for Team Dover members to understand radiation to calm nerves about its possible health effects.

Ionizing radiation is measured in a unit called Roentgen Equivalent Man or REM. REM is the radioactive energy of the substance multiplied by a coefficient of injury due to exposure. The amount of REM recommended for a non radiation worker by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is 6 REM; for a radiation worker, 50 REM.

Eighty-two percent of all ionizing radiation comes from natural sources, this includes things ranging from Brazilian nuts to the sun. The other 18 percent comes from artificial sources such as cigarettes and machines. The single high level REM emitters of both the natural and artificial emitters on base are checked by the 436 AMDS.

"You get more radiation walking outside than you do from an X-ray machine," said Sergeant Hintz.

There are three major kinds of ionizing radiation; alpha, beta and gamma. Alpha and beta are both particles, they cannot pass through materials denser than plastic. An Airman Battle Uniform protects from both of these types of radiation. Gamma radiation, however, is a photon, meaning it can travel at the speed of light and penetrate almost anything, but is very weak in most cases.

In the most recent radiation scare, the failing nuclear reactor in Japan, there were no spikes in radiation either natural or artificial at the two Air Bases there, Misawa or Yokota.

The 436 AMDS controls both single dose high-level-radiation exposure and prolonged small level radiation exposure. They make sure there are low levels of exposures through a program called As Low as Reasonably Achievable or ALARA. This program acknowledges no amount of radiation is healthy; there is risk in any amount. However, keeping the radiation levels in daily activity as low as possible decreases the amount of chronic exposure, therefore creating fewer problems in the future.

To make sure these levels are low, protective equipment is issued and levels are measured in areas where chronic exposure would be common, including most medical areas.

"Most people are only scared of radiation because they don't understand it," said Maj. Jon Seeley, 436 AMDS officer-in-charge of bio environmental engineering. "If the high level exposures are controlled, it really isn't an issue."