Safety Precautions with Radioactive Materials

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Safety Precautions with Radioactive Materials

You should protect yourself in the laboratory. You should always act to minimise your exposure to radioactive sources.

1. Never allow skin contact with a source. Always handle sources with tongs.

2. Keep the source at arms length to keep it as far from the body as possible.

3. Keep the source pointing away from the body and avoid looking directly at it.

4. Always keep the source in a labelled lead box and put it back as soon as the experiment is over to keep your exposure time short. 

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Dangers from Nuclear Radiation

....and if you work with nuclear radiation

1. Industrial nuclear workers wear full protective suits to prevent tiny radioactive particles from being inhaled or lodging on the skin or under fingernails.

2. Lead lined suits and lead/concrete barriers and thick lead screens are used to prevent exposure to gamma rays from highly contaminated areas ( alpha and beta radiation are stopped much more easily ) 

3. Workers use remote controlled robot arms to carry out tasks in highly radioactive areas.

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