Page 17 - Professorial Lecture - Prof Oyedele

4. SOME APPLICATIONS OF IONIZING RADIATION

Despite the fact that a high level of ionizing radiation could pose a health
hazard, there are many important applications of ionizing radiation as I said
earlier. The applications cover different fields such as Medicine, Agriculture,
Science, Civil Engineering, etc. Some applications are presented below.

In Medicine

As many of us must have known, ionizing radiation is used for the treatment
of cancer. A photograph of a cancer patient being treated with the
radiation emitted by a cobalt-60 source is shown in Figure 4.1. This is
radiotherapy and it works by destroying or killing the cells in the cancer (or
at least damaging them so that they could not multiply) but not injuring
healthy tissues in the body. Injury to healthy tissues is avoided by giving a
number of radiation doses at different angles, with the dose at the tumor
building up each time.

This expensive facility is available at the Windhoek Central Hospital and I
usually take my nuclear physics students to the hospital to see the facility
and how it works. I should take this opportunity to thank the Management
of the hospital and the staff (Doctors, Nurses, Medical Physicists, etc.) of the
Radiotherapy Department for always welcoming and conducting us round
the facility. It may be useful to mention that some of my students in the past
were fascinated enough with the facility and radiotherapy that, upon their
graduation, they register for postgraduate studies and became Medical
Physicists.