Ionizing and Nonionizing Radiation

Abstract

Of all the environmental health issues that are being publicized at the turn of the millennium, the one most perplexing to the general public is ionizing radiation. While dirty water, smog laden air, and odoriferous garbage frequently elicit the “outrage factor,” at least they can be seen and/or smelled. Thus, the public can react to something they know is there and is aesthetically displeasing. Radiation has a mystique all of its own. Invisible and insidious, it conjures up memories of the cold war days when the threat of nuclear annihilation hung over the world. Nuclear accidents such as the Three Mile Island near meltdown in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986 have served to reinforce the reality of those fears.