Part 3 of 4 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
Living at a high altitude exposes people to about twice as much charged particles and ultraviolet radiation as people living at sea level. If you are sensitive to ultraviolet radiation, you need to take more precautions if you live in such places as Denver, Colorado.
Granite counter tops are all the rage in fancy homes but they have trace amounts of natural uranium and thorium. One of the decay products of uranium is a radioactive gas called radon which emits both alpha and beta particles as it decays. People are concerned about radon contamination from soil high in uranium and commercial radon detectors are widely available. Fortunately, most of the radon generated by granite counter tops is trapped in the crystal matrix of the rock and poses no health risk.
Grand Central Station in New York City is constructed from granite and has a granite foundation. As with granite counter tops, most of the radon gas generated by the decay of uranium in the granite is trapped in the rock. However, Grand Central Station does emit more radiation in a year that would be allowed in a nuclear power plant. The people passing through the station will not be exposed to much radiation but that would not be true for people who work there. Fortunately, even that level of radiation exposure does not pose serious health problems.
X-rays are an obvious source of high energy electromagnetic radiation that many people are exposed to. Properly calibrated X-ray machines are considered to be relatively safe with respect to radiation exposure. On the other hand, many X-ray machines emit more radiation than allowed by regulations. It is estimated that a single chest X-ray results in radiation exposure that is equivalent to twenty percent of the radiation that a nuclear power plant is permitted to emit in a whole year. Possible health effects from X-rays has to be balanced against the possible benefits of medical diagnosis that might reveal serious medical problems.
Cranial CT scans are frequent diagnostic tools in medicine. They employ a narrow beam of X-rays and subject patients to much more intense electromagnetic radiation that generic X-ray machines. A properly calibrated CT scanner can emit eight times as much radiation as a nuclear power plant is permitted to emit in a year. As with generic X-ray machines, possible health effects from CT scanners have to be balanced against the possible benefits of medical diagnosis that might reveal serious medical problems. And, also as with generic X-ray machines, they must be calibrated properly or they will expose the patient to much higher levels of radiation.
Cigarettes are known to be carcinogenic from the chemical constituents of tobacco as well as additives. Tobacco leaves contain traces of the radioisotope Polonium-210. This radioisotope is a strong alpha particle emitter It is very poisonous and can build up in the lungs and other organs of a chronic smoker and pose an addition threat above and beyond the chemicals in the cigarettes.
Please read Part 4