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United States Department of Health and Human Services
Industry: Government
Number of terms: 33950
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United States Department of Health and Human Services, Radiation Emergency Medical Management
Radiation exposure to an embryo or fetus while it is still in its mother’s womb. At certain stages of the pregnancy, the fetus is particularly sensitive to radiation and the health consequences could be severe above 5 rads, especially to brain function. For more information, see cdc’s fact sheet, “possible health effects of radiation exposure on unborn babies,” at http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/prenatal.asp.
Industry:Medical devices
Naturally radioactive residue from the processing of uranium ore. Although the milling process recovers about 95% of the uranium, the residues, or tailings, contain several isotopes of naturally occurring radioactive material, including uranium (u), thorium (th), radium (ra), polonium (po), and radon (rn).
Industry:Medical devices
A guide that tells state and local authorities at what projected dose they should take action to protect people from exposure to unplanned releases of radioactive material into the environment.
Industry:Medical devices
A multiplier that is used for converting the equivalent dose to a specific organ or tissue into what is called the "effective dose." the goal of this process was to develop a method for expressing the dose to a portion of the body in terms of an equivalent dose to the whole body that would carry with it an equivalent risk in terms of the associated fatal cancer probability. It applies only to the stochastic effects of radiation.
Industry:Medical devices
A small atomic particle, typically found within an atom's nucleus, that possesses a positive electrical charge. Even though protons and neutrons are about 2,000 times heavier than electrons, they are tiny. The number of protons is unique for each chemical element. See also nucleon.
Industry:Medical devices
The measure and analysis of the radiation being emitted from a person’s entire body, detected by a counter external to the body.
Industry:Medical devices
The factor by which the absorbed dose (rad or gray) must be multiplied to obtain a quantity that expresses, on a common scale for all ionizing radiation, the biological damage (rem or sievert) to the exposed tissue. It is used because some types of radiation, such as alpha particles, are more biologically damaging to live tissue than other types of radiation when the absorbed dose from both is equal. The term, quality factor, has now been replaced by "radiation weighting factor" in the latest system of recommendations for radiation protection. (radiation terms, health physics society)
Industry:Medical devices
An exposure of the body to radiation, in which the entire body, rather than an isolated part, is irradiated by an external source.
Industry:Medical devices
A basic unit of absorbed radiation dose. It is a measure of the amount of energy absorbed by the body. The rad is the traditional unit of absorbed dose. It is being replaced by the unit gray (gy), which is equivalent to 100 rad. One rad equals the dose delivered to an object of 100 ergs of energy per gram of material. For more information, see “primer on radiation measurement” from cdc.
Industry:Medical devices
Electromagnetic radiation caused by deflection of electrons from their original paths, or inner orbital electrons that change their orbital levels around the atomic nucleus. X-rays, like gamma rays can travel long distances through air and most other materials. Like gamma rays, x-rays require more shielding to reduce their intensity than do beta or alpha particles. X-rays and gamma rays differ primarily in their origin: x-rays originate in the electronic shell; gamma rays originate in the nucleus. See also neutron.
Industry:Medical devices