• Question: can a person become radioactive and still be alive????????????????????????????

    Asked by 655bsmf24 to Ellen, Elliot, Hazel, Rupesh, Thomas on 20 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Thomas Biggans

      Thomas Biggans answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      Yes, we are all naturally radioactive anyway!

      We’re all radioactive because we all eat, drink and breath in things that are slightly radioactive. In nuclear medicine our patients become even more radioactive when we inject them with radioactive drugs.

      When someone dies because of radiation exposure they don’t die because of the radiation they die because there was too much damage to their cells caused by being exposed to too much radiation. We’re exposed everyday to low amounts of natural background radiation so our bodies can handle a little bit but they can’t handle alot.

    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      Marie Curie worked with radioactive materials a lot (she even used to carry it around in her pockets!). The damage caused by the radioactivity caused diseases in her that eventually killed her, but it is possible to survive quite a bit of radiation for quite a long time.

      Apparently, even the cookbook that she had in her house is still dangerously radioactive because of all the radioactive materials she had around with her a lot of the time!

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