Understanding and Reviewing the Concept of Background Radiation in Everyday Life – its Prevention and related aspects

Abstract

In this manuscript, we aim to present some crucial aspects related to the background radiation (which also includes highly energetic radioactive radiation present in our background or surroundings). The term Background radiation in a layman way includes all the sorts of radiation from all sources surrounding us in our background, due to any radioactive trace (unstable nuclei) or process like nuclear reaction (fusion or fission), or even the radiation contribution from external cosmos (from supernova explosions and/or any other astronomical processes). Notably, the cosmic radiation impact could be very less due to fact that most of the high energy cosmic showers are repelled by the magnetic field of earth. However, its role in the background cannot be out-rightly rejected. In practical sense, the most of the contribution to the background or radioactive radiation is by the radioactive traces present in our environment. This could be in the form of air, water, soil, concrete walls, paint, medical devices, or even the food we consume. In this present paper, we have presented the basic information and showcased the various critical aspects related to the background radiation. This includes brief information about the measurement and methodologies involved in the analysis of the background radiation. Detrimental effect of radioactive radiation on humans as well as methods to prevent or minimize the exposure of harmful and highly energetic radioactive radiation is also discussed. Nevertheless, the information presented is not exhaustive but could summarize the crucial details which could provide overall glimpse of detection of highly energetic radioactive radiation. One should note that the background radiation exposure can be very harmful if sustains at higher levels for longer times in the background (i.e. bombarding humans with dosage more than the prescribed permissible limits).