• Question: what does radiation do to people? what do you think people should do to make sure they don't go somewhere that has radiation? :)

    Asked by ~ha.n.n.ah~ to Kate on 13 Dec 2015.
    • Photo: Kate Wright

      Kate Wright answered on 13 Dec 2015:


      Radiation hurts people by damaging your cells and DNA – if your DNA gets damaged it can cause your cells to start multiplying out of control which can turn into cancer. If you get LOADS of radiation at once then it can just kill your cells and if enough cells die then you’ll die too.

      As for keeping safe from radiation, it’s not actually something you need to worry about. There’s radiation around us all the time (pretty much everything you can think of will be a little bit radioactive, including people). The body can handle a small amount, the problems only start when you get exposed to a lot of radiation. The only places where it’s actually dangerous tend to be at nuclear sites like power stations, and there’s no way they’d let you in there!

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