Hazards of electromagnetic radiation

HERO (Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance). Any Ordnance Item is defined as being HERO UNSAFE ORDNANCE when ... 

Illinger, K.H. "Interaction between Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Electromagnetic Fields and Biological Systems Molecular Mechanisms", in "Biological Effects and Health Hazards of Microwave Radiation", Proc. Intern. Symposium, Czerski, P. et. al., Eds. (Polish Medical Publishers Warsaw, 1974) p. 160. 

Equipment found in laboratories that can produce hazardous amounts of electromagnetic radiation includes ultraviolet lamps, arc lamps, heat lamps, lasers, microwave and radio-frequency sources, and x-rays and electron beams. 

There are at least four different kinds of equipment used in biomedical laboratories that can produce hazardous amounts of electromagnetic radiation. These are ultraviolet lamps, lasers, microwave ovens, and x- and gamma ray-producing equipment. Although ultrasonic baths do not produce electromagnetic radiation, the injury caused by this equipment is similar to that caused by microwaves thus we will discuss its use in this section. The hazards that these pieces of equipment pose and the preventive measures workers must observe are discussed in the following pages. 

For many of the analytical techniques discussed below, it is necessary to have a source of X-rays. There are three ways in which X-rays can be produced in an X-ray tube, by using a radioactive source, or by the use of synchrotron radiation (see Section 12.6). Radioactive sources consist of a radioactive element or compound which spontaneously produces X-rays of fixed energy, depending on the decay process characteristic of the radioactive material (see Section 10.3). Nuclear processes such as electron capture can result in X-ray (or y ray) emission. Thus many radioactive isotopes produce electromagnetic radiation in the X-ray region of the spectrum, for example 3He, 241Am, and 57Co. These sources tend to produce pure X-ray spectra (without the continuous radiation), but are of low intensity. They can be used as a source in portable X-ray devices, but can be hazardous to handle because they cannot be switched off. In contrast, synchrotron radiation provides an... 

Ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation below 320 nm. It thus forms an indispensable shield in the upper atmosphere, protecting the Earth s surface from most of the potentially hazardous effects of such high-energy electromagnetic radiation. There is now increasing concern because atmospheric pollutants are depleting the ozone layer worldwide, with the most serious depletion over Antarctica as a result of seasonal variations in high-altitude air circulation. In the upper atmosphere, ozone is formed from O2 ... 

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