What does the reading on a Geiger meter equate to in physical effects?

Question

I know 0.2 isn’t very worrisome but 1.5 is. What is the difference in the physical effects between these readings and readings 2.0+?

Thanks 🙂

In: 40

Answer 1

That little grainy clicking sound you hear are *subatomic particles slamming into a rod in the Geiger counter and producing a crackling like a spark or lightning bolt.*

The counter measures ionizing radiation. What makes something a radioactive material is that over time, it’s atoms break down and emit subatomic particles (like alpha or beta particles) as super high energy. These particles can “ionize” things they slam into — knocking an election free. The Geiger counter contains a high voltage spark gap and a gas that is easily ionized. When a particle slams into the gas and knocks an electron free, that free electron and the resulting ion (an atom missing an electron) slam into other gas particles and set of a chain reaction of ionization carrying current across that spark gap — something like a lightning bolt cracking through the atmosphere.

This same ionizing process (knocking free an electron) can happen in your skin or deeper organs when exposed to ionizing radiation. Like the gas in the Geiger counter, DNA is also easily ionized. If enough electrons get knocked out of your DNA, it can deform, mutate, or destroy the DNA. The body has ways of correcting this kind of damage (it’s somewhat similar to a sunburn).

But if there is enough of it, your body cannot fix the damage and you essentially end up without the ability to make new proteins of fix your cells. This is called severe acute radiation poisoning.