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Asked by finlayr to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 14 Mar 2012.
Question: am i radioactive
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Adam Stevens answered on 12 Mar 2012:
There will be some radioactive elements in your body, so you will be slightly radioactive.
For example, when you eat a banana (if you eat bananas) you increase the amount of potassium in your body. In all the potassium in the banana, a small portion is actually a radioactive isotope of potassium. You will also have very tiny amounts of other radioactive elements, but these are so small that they aren’t really dangerous.
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Leila Battison answered on 12 Mar 2012:
You are ever so slightly radioactive, but not with the dangerous elements like uranium, or plutonium. Elements that you have a lot of in your body, like carbon or potassium, have isotopes (with an extra neutron, or proton) that are not stable. These will change back to a stable type over time, creating radioactivity, but these processes are very slow.
There is only so much radioactivity that a human body can take, so there are limits to how long people can work inside nuclear reactors, or how long astronauts can be outside a spaceship on a space walk. Too much radiation damages your DNA and can cause cancer.
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Nazim Bharmal answered on 14 Mar 2012:
A tiny, tiny bit. I think if you live in Cornwall then you are more radioactive because of the gases released by the granite but it isn’t dangerous.
We are basically made up of the remains of stars that long, long ago exploded making all the heavier elements than helium (and lithium). And those stars were basically giant nuclear reactors.
Even if we aren’t very radioactive, we all were part of a the universe’s biggest nuclear reactors once upon a time. Makes you think, doesn’t it? :-p
Comments
Adam commented on :
If you live in Cornwall it will mean you are more irradiated, not more radioactive!