3 ms·

Would love to hear from radio engineer type people on HN, I was under the impression that exposure to non-ionizing radiation is fine. Are there any real negati

by Dig1t 2y ago

Would love to hear from radio engineer type people on HN, I was under the impression that exposure to non-ionizing radiation is fine. Are there any real negative effects of large exposure to non-ionizing radiation?

mrguyorama 2y ago
>Are there any real negative effects of large exposure to non-ionizing radiation? Yes, at the point of kilowatts you start to just straight up cook. Ionizing radiation is dangerous because each individual "quanta/packet" of energy, ie photon, contains enough energy to knock electrons off of individual atoms. It fills your body with "free radicals" and chemically active molecules that start ripping apart other molecules in your body to get their preferred electron state back. Sometimes this destruction involves molecules of DNA, and sometimes sometimes that DNA is affected in a way that gets past the normal correction mechanisms in our cell, and sometimes sometimes sometimes, the stars align, and that cell does a cancer. People get afraid of the cancer because they don't really understand how electromagnetic radiation works and they have very little experience with ionizing radiation. Except that's a lie, every human around has extensive experience with a significant source of Ionizing radiation that they deal with literally every day; The Sun puts out something like 50ish watts per square meter of UV radiation. Every sun burn is a radiation burn, caused by UV photons ionizing the molecules in your body. The purpose of melanin in your body is to safely absorb as much of that UV radiation as possible. The photons released by a cell phone cannot do that. They physically cannot knock electrons off of atoms to create ions. This is called the photoelectric effect and was one of the key findings to kick off the entire field of quantum physics. No matter how many low frequency photons you shoot at an atom, no longer how long, you will not ionize that atom. These low energy/frequency photons will still cause radiative heating, which is the way your microwave cooks food. Notably, consumer microwaves put out a Kilowatt of radio frequency energy. Your cell phone puts out less than 3 watts of "effective" radio frequency energy, so less if it has a better/smarter antenna setup. That is the maximum, averaged output for FCC certification in the US.

by Dig1t 2y ago

mrguyorama 2y ago

>Are there any real negative effects of large exposure to non-ionizing radiation? Yes, at the point of kilowatts you start to just straight up cook. Ionizing radiation is dangerous because each individual "quanta/packet" of energy, ie photon, contains enough energy to knock electrons off of individual atoms. It fills your body with "free radicals" and chemically active molecules that start ripping apart other molecules in your body to get their preferred electron state back. Sometimes this destruction involves molecules of DNA, and sometimes sometimes that DNA is affected in a way that gets past the normal correction mechanisms in our cell, and sometimes sometimes sometimes, the stars align, and that cell does a cancer. People get afraid of the cancer because they don't really understand how electromagnetic radiation works and they have very little experience with ionizing radiation. Except that's a lie, every human around has extensive experience with a significant source of Ionizing radiation that they deal with literally every day; The Sun puts out something like 50ish watts per square meter of UV radiation. Every sun burn is a radiation burn, caused by UV photons ionizing the molecules in your body. The purpose of melanin in your body is to safely absorb as much of that UV radiation as possible. The photons released by a cell phone cannot do that. They physically cannot knock electrons off of atoms to create ions. This is called the photoelectric effect and was one of the key findings to kick off the entire field of quantum physics. No matter how many low frequency photons you shoot at an atom, no longer how long, you will not ionize that atom. These low energy/frequency photons will still cause radiative heating, which is the way your microwave cooks food. Notably, consumer microwaves put out a Kilowatt of radio frequency energy. Your cell phone puts out less than 3 watts of "effective" radio frequency energy, so less if it has a better/smarter antenna setup. That is the maximum, averaged output for FCC certification in the US.