Radiobiology
[2] Radiation-induced cancer, teratogenesis, cognitive decline, and heart disease are all stochastic effects induced by ionizing radiation.
[9] The deterministic effects have been studied at for example survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and cases where radiation therapy has been necessary during pregnancy: The intellectual deficit has been estimated to be about 25 IQ points per 1,000 mGy at 10 to 17 weeks of gestational age.
[9] These effects are sometimes relevant when deciding about medical imaging in pregnancy, since projectional radiography and CT scanning exposes the fetus to radiation.
Also, the risk for the mother of later acquiring radiation-induced breast cancer seems to be particularly high for radiation doses during pregnancy.
The committed dose is a measure of the stochastic health risk due to an intake of radioactive material into the human body.
The ICRP states "For internal exposure, committed effective doses are generally determined from an assessment of the intakes of radionuclides from bioassay measurements or other quantities.
When radioactive compounds enter the human body, the effects are different from those resulting from exposure to an external radiation source.
As a field of medical sciences, radiobiology originated from Leopold Freund's 1896 demonstration of the therapeutic treatment of a hairy mole using the newly discovered form of electromagnetic radiation called X-rays.
After irradiating frogs and insects with X-rays in early 1896, Ivan Romanovich Tarkhanov concluded that these newly discovered rays not only photograph, but also "affect the living function".
In 1927 Hermann Joseph Muller published research showing genetic effects, and in 1946 was awarded the Nobel prize for his findings.
Marie Curie spoke out against this sort of treatment, warning that the effects of radiation on the human body were not well understood.
Robley D. Evans, at MIT, developed the first standard for permissible body burden of radium, a key step in the establishment of nuclear medicine as a field of study.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in a large number of incidents of radiation poisoning, allowing for greater insight into its symptoms and dangers.
Red Cross Hospital surgeon Dr. Terufumi Sasaki led intensive research into the Syndrome in the weeks and months following the Hiroshima bombings.
Sasaki and his team were able to monitor the effects of radiation in patients of varying proximities to the blast itself, leading to the establishment of three recorded stages of the syndrome.
[25] Actress Midori Naka, who was present during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, was the first incident of radiation poisoning to be extensively studied.
The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation have been monitoring the health status of the survivors and their descendants since 1946.
