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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffRadiation sickness is usually defined as damage to the body caused by a very large dose of radiation often received over a short period of time (acute). The amount of radiation absorbed by the body — the absorbed dose — determines how sick you'll be.
Radiation sickness is also called acute radiation sickness, acute radiation syndrome or radiation poisoning. Common exposures to low-dose radiation, such as X-ray examinations, do not cause radiation sickness.
Although radiation sickness is serious and often fatal, it's very rare. Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II, most cases of radiation sickness have happened after nuclear industrial accidents, such as the 1986 nuclear reactor accident at a power station in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
The terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 along with other acts of terrorism around the world have caused some to worry about terrorists' using radioactive devices that could expose many people and cause radiation sickness and deaths.
Symptoms
