It is true that unprotected medical radiation can have terrible effects on the human body, but medical tests such as X-rays and CTs are not actually terrible when used properly and within reasonable limits. With the continuous development of medical technology, people are exposed to an increasing variety of medical examinations. At the same time, there is also concern about the safety of the use of screening equipment. For example, some people believe that exposure to X-ray medical examinations and treatments will cause damage to the human body and will not be worth the cost; others believe that the use of X-ray equipment will have a negative impact on the surrounding environment. Is this really the case? What is “radiation”? Radiation is a physical term that is generally divided into two categories, ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, based on the level of energy and the ability to ionize materials. Ionizing” refers to the process of physical and chemical changes that occur in certain tissues when an organism is exposed to radiation, resulting in damage. Non-ionizing radiation is weaker in energy and has no ionizing ability, for example, electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phones, computers, microwave ovens, communication base stations and other devices are of this kind. In general, exposure to these non-ionizing radiation, relevant scientific studies have not found evidence of damage to the human body. X-rays used in medical examinations, on the other hand, are ionizing radiation that has the ability to ionize and may affect human health. X-rays help people. The most common applications of X-rays in life are medical examinations, such as X-rays and CT scans, which are performed using the physical properties of X-rays. X-rays, like sunlight and radio waves, are beams of energy that are short in wavelength and high in energy and have a penetrating effect. As a result, X-rays can reveal many lesions within the body, providing doctors with valuable and accurate diagnostic information that plays an important role in the treatment of disease. In particular, the creation of the X-ray device “CT” has greatly improved the difficult diagnosis of brain diseases and has saved countless lives. Effects of ionizing radiation on the human body The damage caused by ionizing radiation is divided into random effects and non-random effects (generally called deterministic effects). Random effects are very rare and do not occur in daily life or during medical treatment, except in a few special cases. What is relevant to our medical treatment is the non-random effect, that is, the deterministic effect, and there is a correspondence between the severity of the deterministic effect and the radiation dose. Deterministic effect is a kind of “threshold” effect Radiation to cause damage to the human body must reach a certain dose, this dose is called “threshold”. If a person is exposed to radiation below the threshold dose, it is considered not harmful to the body; if the threshold is exceeded more, the severity of the harm is higher. In medical examinations, the use of X-rays is strictly controlled within a safe range, much less than the dose threshold mentioned before, and therefore does not cause significant damage to the human body. How is the radiation dose measured? Because different biological tissues have different sensitivities to radiation, the health risks to different parts of the body after exposure to radiation vary. In order to clearly describe this situation, scientists introduced the concept of “effective radiation dose”, and developed a unit millisievert (mSv) to measure it. With the concept of “effective radiation dose”, the risk of radiation can be better quantified, so as to better reduce the harm of ionizing radiation to the human body. Natural radiation is everywhere In the natural environment we live in, radiation is also everywhere, including cosmic rays coming to the earth and natural radionuclides emitted in nature, so this radiation is called “natural background radiation”, also called “natural background radiation”. According to the statistics of relevant organizations, the amount of “natural background radiation” a normal person receives in a year is about 3 mSv. This radiation dose is not fixed, depending on the natural conditions (such as altitude, sunshine time, etc.), it may vary slightly, so the measurement in this article is taken from the average value of 3 mSv. After understanding the “natural background radiation”, we can simply quantify the dose of various medical examinations. For example, the dose of a chest X-ray is about 0.1mSv, which is equivalent to the “natural background radiation” that a person receives in 10 days, while the dose of an X-ray of an extremity is about 0.001mSv, which is equivalent to the “natural background radiation” that a person receives in 3 hours. Thus, timely, accurate and risk-controlled radiation examinations are beneficial to the diagnosis and treatment of patients’ diseases, and the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages in this process. The physical nature of X-rays, which diminish in intensity as they penetrate any substance, allows for a range of safe and reliable protection options. Adequate shielding (shielding material) between the radiation source and the human body can block the radiation, ensure personal safety and achieve the purpose of protection. Therefore, the main point of shielding protection is to place shielding materials that can effectively absorb radiation between the radiation and the human body. 1. For public protection, the common shielding materials used to block X-rays are lead plates, concrete walls, or barium-containing cement walls. As a user of X-ray equipment, you need to do a good job of these protective measures, but also through the acceptance of multiple departments. Now, China’s management of medical radiation has been quite safe, the use of X-ray equipment, the physician operating the equipment and the surrounding environment generally will not cause impact. 2. In terms of examinee protection, measures are often taken to shield non-examined parts. As a patient, you can ask the radiographer to give appropriate shielding protection when undergoing radiation examinations, such as wearing lead clothing, lead bibs, lead caps, lead aprons, etc., to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure to sensitive organs. The medical radiation is not as scary as you think, and I hope you will not be afraid to talk about radiation.