A comparison between the protection against coronavirus and radiation protection according to the ALARA principle, " The smallest possible exposure time, as far away from other people as possible (or 'as socially distanced as possible'), and wearing a mask whenever possible".
Knowledge and experience with radiation protection helps a lot in applying and understanding the measures against Covid-19. Distance, time and barriers of course but more so the awareness of risk and reduction of risk if the exposure is kept as low as reasonably achievable. So to say Covid-19 will help all radiation protection experts in communicating in the future.
Hello Said,
I like your idea of coopting the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable ) principle from radiation protection to the problem of personal protection from the SARS-COV-2 virus. Whether ALARA implicitly assumes that there is no safe radiation level, i.e., no threshold below which radiation does not cause damage, is still open to debate. With respect to SARS-COV-2, one is faced with this same question, i.e., can one become infected with COVID-19 by inhaling a single virus particle (no threshold) or must one inhale a certain number of virus particles (threshold)? It is not clear to me what the answer is.
Regards,
Tom Cuff
you forget the aerosols which are not present around radiation sources.
In an very, very rough comparison areosols can be regards as the higher order scatter radiation contributions. But I must admit that any efficiencies are quite different in that analogy.
Hello All,
I agree that there is a danger in analogy, specifically, false equivalences. However, one can still see some similarities between radiation protection and SARS-COV-2 virus mitigation modalities. For example, droplets and aerosols exhibit short and longer range propagation behaviors, respectively, in a similar way to direct ionizing radiations (alpha and beta particles, short range due to Coulomb interactions with matter) and indirect ionizing radiations (gamma rays and neutrons, longer range due to no direct Coulomb interactions). In the case of radiative contamination, such as dispersed radioactive materials like plutonium contamination, the safety procedures are similar to the SARS-COV-2 virus procedures: full hazmat suits and washing down of these suits. And surprisingly, COVID-19 also has long term effects on the human body, which is also a hallmark of acute radiation exposure, even after the person is removed from the source of the exposure. Long-haulers, as some COVID-19 sufferers are called, continue to exhibit unusual blood work and symptoms such as fatigue and headaches for weeks, months, and perhaps years after exposure to the SAR-COV-2 virus even if the titer of virus in their blood is too low to be detectable.
Of course, the real difference between radiation and the virus is that, hopefully, there is a vaccine against the virus.
Regards,
Tom Cuff
hello Said .. according to ALARA principle when increasing the distance from a radiation source we will decrease the intensity to 0.25 % from its original intensity ( according to the inverse squire law ). but with coronavirus that is not
occur mainly with medical staff.
Well, I like the idea. However, ionization radiation has some different factors such as the half-life which could be very long, the radioactive material could be, gas, solid, or liquid. Radiation such as gamma or neutrons needs a very thick shield.
I feel that we have to concentrate more on how to use the experience and knowledge from the protection against CBRN for the protection against covid-19. This is especially relevant for respirators and masks as well as for other protective equipment.
In my opinion, it is amazing how the knowledge and experience from the protection against ionizing radiation sources (especially against radioactive substances) have not been fully utilized in the protection against COVID-19 pandemic. This was mainly true at the beginning of the eruption of the pandemic where there was a lot of improvisation in producing personal protective equipment especially such as face musks where we could have taught some lessons from the previous development of protective measures obtained during more than 50 years of intensive research associated with the protection against CBRN.
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