Abstract
In this book, we have discussed exposures to radioactivity, and tried to describe where they come from and to put them in context. Everything is radioactive to some extent—including our own bodies—and so radiation exposures are part of normal life. The human race evolved alongside this background radiation, which has sometimes been at a level several times higher than it is at the moment, and it has very rarely caused us problems, which is why we never evolved a sense for this radiation. In the past century, the human race has learned how to put radioactivity and radiation to good use for nuclear power, for nuclear medicine and in industry.
The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
Henry Ford 1863–1947
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Notes
- 1.
The American Institute for Cancer Research concluded in 2007 that “red or processed meats are convincing or probable sources of some cancers”. Clearly, the risk from one portion is extremely low, which is the whole idea of this comparison.
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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Grupen, C., Rodgers, M. (2016). What Have We Learned?. In: Radioactivity and Radiation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42330-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42330-2_13
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