What electromagnetic wave is harmful to humans? Higher-frequency EMFs, which include
x-rays and gamma rays
. These EMFs are in the ionizing radiation part of the electromagnetic spectrum and can damage DNA or cells directly.
How are electromagnetic waves hazardous?
- radio waves: one of the few known effects of radio waves on the human body is a very small rise in temperature of up to 0.2
o
C. … - microwaves can cause internal heating of body tissues;
- infrared radiation is felt as heat and causes skin to burn;
Why are some electromagnetic waves harmful to living things?
The extremely high energy of gamma rays allows them to penetrate just about anything. They can even pass through bones and teeth. This makes gamma rays very dangerous.
They can destroy living cells, produce gene mutations, and cause cancer
.
Why are high frequency electromagnetic waves harmful?
RF radiation has lower energy than some other types of non-ionizing radiation, like visible light and infrared, but it has higher energy than extremely low-frequency (ELF) radiation.
If RF radiation is absorbed by the body in large enough amounts, it can produce heat. This can lead to burns and body tissue damage
.
Are ultraviolet waves harmful?
UV exposure increases the risk of potentially blinding eye diseases, if eye protection is not used
. Overexposure to UV radiation can lead to serious health issues, including cancer.
“We’ve all heard about UV radiation when it comes to sun protection and sunscreen use. UVA is generally considered to be the ray associated with ‘skin ageing’ and UVB with skin reddening or burning. About 10% of solar radiation is UV, 40% is visible light, and
50% is infrared light
.”
Over-exposure to certain types of electromagnetic radiation can be harmful. The higher the frequency of the radiation, the more damage it is likely to cause to the body: microwaves cause internal heating of body tissues.
infrared radiation
is felt as heat and causes skin to burn.
Beta particles are also damaging to DNA, and therefore are often used in radiation therapy to mutate and kill cancer cells.
Gamma rays
are often considered the most dangerous type of radiation to living matter. Unlike alpha and beta particles, which are charged particles, gamma rays are instead forms of energy.
Despite the advent of numerous additional research studies on RF fields and health, the only established adverse health effects associated with RF field exposures in the frequency range from
3 kHz to 300 GHz
relate to the occurrence of tissue heating and nerve stimulation (NS) from short-term (acute) exposures.
Apart from some minor local effects
no significant effects of EMF on environmental species have been identified
. Studies occasionally published on the effects of EMF on species in the environment have generally been scattered in focus and uneven in quality.
UVB radiation makes up only 5% of the UV rays from the sun, but it is very high energy. “
UVB does not penetrate as deeply as UVA
, but it can wreak havoc on the top layers of your skin.” George says. UVB damages skin cells and causes DNA mutations that can eventually lead to melanoma and other types of skin cancer.
UV-B rays
are the harmful rays that cause sunburn. Exposure to UV-B rays increases the risk of DNA and other cellular damage in living organisms. Fortunately, about 95 percent UV-B rays are absorbed by ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere.
UVA rays have the longest wavelengths, followed by UVB, and UVC rays which have the shortest wavelengths
. While UVA and UVB rays are transmitted through the atmosphere, all UVC and some UVB rays are absorbed by the Earth’s ozone layer. So, most of the UV rays you come in contact with are UVA with a small amount of UVB.
The key difference between infrared and ultraviolet radiation is that the wavelength of infrared radiation is longer than that of visible light, whereas the wavelength of ultraviolet radiation is shorter than the wavelength of visible light.
Infrared and ultraviolet radiation are two types of electromagnetic radiation
.
Red Light therapy does not penetrate through clothing or bandages as it visible to the eye. However
near infrared light, which is invisible to the eye, will penetrate through clothes and many bandages and dressings
.
This explains the relatively large penetration depth of IR -A radiation (780–1,400 nanometres), which
can penetrate up to some 5 millimetres into the skin
, allowing it to reach the hypodermis and act on it directly. In general, the shorter the wavelength of infrared radiation, the greater the penetration depth.
The Power of
X-Rays
001 to 10 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. These waves are smaller than an atom and can pass through most materials as sunlight passes through glass. Although X-rays have many beneficial applications, using them requires caution since exposure can cause blindness, cancer and other injuries.
Gamma rays
have the shortest wavelengths (less than one trillionth of a meter), therefore the highest frequencies, therefore carry the most energy. These are the most damaging to tissues.
