- Industry: Government
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United States Department of Health and Human Services, Radiation Emergency Medical Management
A dosimetric quantity useful for comparing the overall health affects of irradiation of the whole body. It takes into account the absorbed doses received by various organs and tissues and weighs them according to present knowledge of the sensitivity of each organ to radiation. It also accounts for the type of radiation and the potential for each type to inflict biologic damage. The effective dose is used, for example, to compare the overall health detriments of different radionuclides in a given mix. The unit of effective dose is the sievert (sv); 1 sv = 1 j/kg. For more information, see “primer on radiation measurement” from cdc. See also what is effective dose?
Industry:Medical devices
The time required for the amount of a radionuclide deposited in a living organism to be diminished by 50% as a result of the combined action of radioactive decay and biological elimination. See also biological half-life, decay constant, radioactive half-life.
Industry:Medical devices
A traveling wave motion that results from changing electric and magnetic fields. Types of electromagnetic radiation range from those of short wavelength, like x-rays and gamma rays, through the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regions, to radar and radio waves of relatively long wavelengths.
Industry:Medical devices
An elementary particle with a negative electrical charge and a mass 1/1837 that of the proton. Electrons surround the nucleus of an atom because of the attraction between their negative charge and the positive charge of the nucleus. A stable atom will have as many electrons as it has protons. The number of electrons that orbit an atom determine its chemical properties. See also neutron.
Industry:Medical devices
A unit of energy equivalent to the amount of energy gained by an electron when it passes from a point of low potential to a point one volt higher in potential.
Industry:Medical devices
1) all isotopes of an atom that contain the same number of protons. For example, the element uranium has 92 protons, and the different isotopes of this element may contain 134 to 148 neutrons. 2) in a reactor, a fuel element is a metal rod containing the fissile material.
Industry:Medical devices
Uranium in which the proportion of the isotope uranium-235 has been increased by removing uranium-238 mechanically. See also depleted uranium.
Industry:Medical devices
The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations; and the application of this study to the control of health problems.
Industry:Medical devices
A measure of ionization in air caused by x-rays or gamma rays only. The unit of exposure most often used is the roentgen. See also contamination.
Industry:Medical devices
