Environmental Hazards

IONIZING radiation is by definition radiation that causes ionization in material on which it impinges. Such radiation may consist of energetic particles or electromagnetic waves, either of which are characterized by their ability to penetrate tissues and deposit their energy within them in a random fashion along their paths. These characteristics, ionization and penetration, differentiate ionizing radiation from electromagnetic radiations of longer wavelength such as visible and ultraviolet light, which have insufficient energy to produce ionization or to penetrate more than a few microns below the incident surface. It should be pointed out that ionization is but the initial event . . .