How Do Electromagnetic Waves Cause Cancer?

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Maisy Chase
10/5/18
How Do Electromagnetic Waves Cause Cancer?
Radiation, energy waves from any source, presents itself throughout multiple medical scans and even in everyday life. Some medical scans such as X-Rays, CT scans, PET scans, and bone scans all permit low levels radiation in order to create images inside a person's body. Medical scans are an example of radiation, but so is the light that comes from the sun and the heat that is constantly coming off our bodies. We are exposed to radiation every day, but larger amounts can cause health problems, which will lead to cancer.
In order to cells to have cancer, the cells must be damaged. Different types of cells in the body do different jobs, but they are basically similar. They all are controlled by the center of a cell, called a nucleus. Inside the nucleus are chromosomes made up of thousands of genes. Genes contain long strings of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which are coded messages that tell the cell how to behave. When cells reproduce, they go through a step called mitosis. A stage in mitosis causes the cells to divide. Sometimes a change happens in the genes when a cell divides. This is a mutation. It means that a gene has been damaged, lost or copied twice. Some mutations mean that the cell no longer understands its instructions and starts to grow out of control. Mutations in particular genes may mean that a cell starts producing too many proteins that trigger a cell to divide. Or it stops producing proteins that normally tell a cell to stop dividing. Abnormal proteins may be produced that work differently to normal. Over time these cells will eventually die off, and cancerous cells will grow at the same time. These cancerous cells spread throughout the tissue and cause a tumor.


There are two major ways that radiation injures the DNA inside your cells. The first and most common way radiation can cause damage to cells is when the water in your body tends to absorb a large portion of the radiation and becomes ionized. When water is ionized it readily forms highly reactive molecules called free radicals. These free radicals can react with and damage the DNA molecule. Alternatively, radiation can collide with the DNA molecule, itself, ionizing and damaging it directly.
This risk of cancer from radiation is very small. The risk of developing cancer from a lifetime exposure of background radiation is about 1 in 100 or 1% of the population. It is impossible to avoid all background radiation, but the best ways to limit unnecessary exposure to radiation from the environment is to prevent your exposure to radon and repeated unprotected sun exposure.


https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/x-rays-gamma-rays/medical-radiation.html



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