page_title: Radiation protection
section_title: Internal dose uptake
hierarchical_section_title: Radiation protection / Principles / Internal dose uptake
caption_attribution_description: Workers use a glovebox in the Visual Examination and Repackaging Building (VERB) to sort the contents of a drum containing legacy transuranic waste to remove prohibited items and repackage in an overpack drum for disposal at the WIPP near Carlsbad, NM.
context_page_description: Radiation protection, also known as radiological protection, is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as "The protection of people from harmful effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, and the means for achieving this". Exposure can be from a source of radiation external to the human body or due to internal irradiation caused by the ingestion of radioactive contamination.
  Ionizing radiation is widely used in industry and medicine, and can present a significant health hazard by causing microscopic damage to living tissue. There are two main categories of ionizing radiation health effects. At high exposures, it can cause "tissue" effects, also called "deterministic" effects due to the certainty of them happening, conventionally indicated by the unit gray and resulting in acute radiation syndrome. For low level exposures there can be statistically elevated risks of radiation-induced cancer, called "stochastic effects" due to the uncertainty of them happening, conventionally indicated by the unit sievert.
  Fundamental to radiation protection is the avoidance or reduction of dose using the simple protective measures of time, distance and shielding.
context_section_description: Internal dose, due to the inhalation or ingestion of radioactive substances, can result in stochastic or deterministic effects, depending on the amount of radioactive material ingested and other biokinetic factors.
  The risk from a low level internal source is represented by the dose quantity committed dose, which has the same risk as the same amount of external effective dose.
  The intake of radioactive material can occur through four pathways:
  inhalation of airborne contaminants such as radon gas and radioactive particles
  ingestion of radioactive contamination in food or liquids
  absorption of vapours such as tritium oxide through the skin
  injection of medical radioisotopes such as technetium-99m
  The occupational hazards from airborne radioactive particles in nuclear and radio-chemical applications are greatly reduced by the extensive use of gloveboxes to contain such material. To protect against breathing in radioactive particles in ambient air, respirators with particulate filters are worn.
  To monitor the concentration of radioactive particles in ambient air, radioactive particulate monitoring instruments measure the concentration or presence of airborne materials.
  For ingested radioactive materials in food and drink, specialist laboratory radiometric assay methods are used to measure the concentration of such materials.
caption: Large scale glovebox in the nuclear industry used to contain airborne radioactive particles.
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