• Question: why does too much radiation kill you?

    Asked by 11hardya to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      A big dose of radiation is a bit like burning your body from the inside -you die because the high energy particles rip through your body and destroy your cell walls, particularly your blood cells. If they die you can’t transport oxygen very well (red blood cells die) and you get sick from infection (your white blood cells which fight infection die). It also makes you vomit as it affects your gut and your skin blister! not very nice…

    • Photo: Steven Gardner

      Steven Gardner answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Large doses of radiation damages cells, if your cells get too damaged so they can’t reproduce they will begin a process called apoptosis which is basically them killing themselves. If too many of these cells die at the same time then you’ll start to lose vital functions that keep you alive.

      However, large doses of radiation can also save you! People with cancer are often given ‘radiotherapy’. Radiotherapy is where cancerous tumours are blasted with high doses of radiation to kill them, but the beams are carefully crafted so that other parts of your body recieve much less radiation and can recover.

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