Radiation History And Safety

The science and art of radiation protection or health physics grew out of the discoveries of x-rays and radioactivity near the end of the nineteenth century. The x-ray, discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen in 1895, was reported to the world shortly after the first of the year in 1896. His discovery was a scientific bombshell, and was received with extraordinary interest by both scientist and laymen. Many scientist dropped other concentrations of research to pursue …

…Occupational Medicine Program for Radiation Workers, Government Regulation (NCRP v-vi). It was in the Manhattan District where many of the modern concepts of protection were created, including the rem unit, which took into account the biological effectiveness of the radiation, and the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) for inhaled radioactivity. In deed, it was in the Manhattan District that modern day radiation protection effects, born in the early days of x-ray and radium, realized their maturity.