Transcript – Intro

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[Vivi:] Hello. I’m Vivi Siegel. I’m a risk communication specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I’m here with Armin Ansari, a health physicist with CDC, and today we’ll be discussing communication challenges unique to radiation emergencies. We’ll start with an overview of radiation terms and then explore some common myths of radiation. Armin, thanks for joining me.

[Armin:] It’s my pleasure.

[Vivi:] I want to take a minute to frame today’s discussion for our audience. While we will be hitting on some technical subject matter, this training won’t serve as a radiation basics course. What we will be doing is identifying some common radiation myths and providing information that communicators can use to counteract these myths. By the end of this video, our viewers will be able to: identify common misconceptions of radiation, recognize communication challenges unique to radiation emergencies, and describe appropriate communication strategies to counteract misconceptions of radiation. Finally, I want to encourage our viewers to explore the CDC Radiation Emergencies website. We have numerous communication resources, educational materials, and training products available. Okay, enough housekeeping. Armin, can you provide a quick overview of the radiation terms we need to know for this discussion?

[Armin:] Sure. For this discussion, what we are really talking about is ionizing radiation, which is energy that is given off by radioactive materials. Ionizing radiation has a lot of energy; much more than the low energy radiation from radio waves, cell phones, and microwaves. These types of low energy radiation are called non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation has potential for interacting with and changing atoms and molecules. This is an important distinction which many people may not realize. Our focus here is only on ionizing radiation, but for simplicity, we’ll just refer to it as radiation. If radiation hits the cells in the body, it can damage or even kill the cells. The amount of energy that the body absorbs from this radiation is called the radiation dose. At high doses, and when most of the body is exposed, enough cells die to impair the function of various organs in the body and that can lead to really serious health effects including death. If only a specific part of the body is exposed and the dose is high enough, it could lead to localized effects such as skin injury. At low doses, if any cells are damaged, the cells may repair that damage with no consequence. Or the cells may leave the damage unrepaired or repair it incorrectly, and these may have long-term consequences and could potentially increase risk of cancer.

[Vivi:] You used the word “exposed.” Is this term used differently for radiation hazards than other environmental hazards?

[Armin:] It is. When our bodies absorb the energy from radiation, we are being exposed to radiation. We don’t have to come in contact, necessarily, with any radioactive materials. If we walk away from the source of the radiation, the exposure stops.

[Vivi:] So like with an x-ray – you’re exposed while the x-ray is being taken, but you don’t take any of the radiation home with you.

[Armin:] Exactly! Now, in contrast, if radioactive material gets on our clothing, skin or hair, it contaminates us. We call this external contamination because it’s on the outside of our bodies. External contamination can be removed simply by taking off contaminated clothing and washing with soap and water. If we inhale or ingest radioactive material, we call that internal contamination because it is now inside our bodies. It’s harder to remove internal contamination. Our bodies can get rid of some of it through metabolism and excretion. And for some types of radioactive materials we have medicines – we call them countermeasures – that can speed up the excretion process.

[Vivi:] Okay, thanks. That should help our viewers – and me— keep the terms straight as we move onto the myths. We went out and asked people some basic questions about radiation. In the next segments, we’ll hear what they have to say. ^M00:04:22

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