INTRODUCTION
RADIATION IN GENERAL
Man lives in a naturally radioactive environment.
He is surrounded
by radioactivity much as he is by the great ocean of air which envelops
the world.
Like air, we cannot see radioactivity with the naked eye, but
we know it is there because its effects can be observed and its presence
can be measured with special instruments.
If we could give color to the radioactive rays which are naturally
present in our environment, we would behold a wondrous display of activity.
We would see these rays emanating from the wood of our houses, the rocks
and soil of land, from living plants and trees, and from cement buildings
and metal structures.
In addition to this, we would see radiation and other rays passing
through the air from television sets, power plants, wristwatches, paint,
Canned foods,
the milk we drink,
and from the X-ray and other ray-producing
machines in doctors' and dentists' offices and in hospitals and research
institutes--not to mention facilities which produce radioactive materials
and facilities which use them, like atomic power plants.
We could see them shocting out from the sand of a beach,
fresh-water lakes,
fish,
birds, and animals.
the ocean,
We would also see cosmic rays’
from deep in space stabbing through the atmosphere and actually passing
through our bodies, and other matter,*
Finally, if we could see inside our
bodies, we would also see rays emanating from different areas-~the result of
certain radioactive elements, such as potassium, which are possessed naturally
*Some cosmic rays are so powerful, in fact, that they have been recorded
in mines over a quarter of a mile {1320 feet) below the earth's surface. (46)
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