ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to make waste site worker more knowledgeable about the dangers of, and yet the need for, radiation and radioactivity in the modern world, with emphasis on ionizing radiation. In addition, there might be potential radiation hazards facing them at a hazardous waste site. Radiation may be divided into two broad classes, depending upon the amount of energy and the kind of damage it can do: ionizing radiation and nonionizing radiation. Gamma radiation is electromagnetic in nature and can pass through the entire human body or even sheets of lead. Just like X-rays, gamma rays cause intense ionization within living cells, leading to cell death or cancer. Protection from gamma radiation depends upon shielding by thick amounts of lead or other material. The three methods of protection – time, distance, and shielding – will lessen the hazards from working around external radiation, whether ionizing or nonionizing, whether radioactivity or microwaves, whether light waves or X-rays.
