The effect of thermal neutrons on samples of human blood

Abstract

Radiation can be either useful or harmful when human exposed to any kind of radiations. The effects of radiations on human blood samples were tested. In this study, blood was irradiated with Ra-Be (α, n) thermal neutron source. The effects on the components of blood (Red blood corpuscles, white blood cells, and hemoglobin concentration) examined and recorded. The work undertaken focuses on the analysis of the blood sample after they had been irradiated. Four cc (4cc) blood samples were gathered from 8 different volunteers (4 males and 4 females). After that each samples was divided into two equal parts (1cc each) and placed in different polyethylene tubes, with the first to be used as a standard. The other sample were irradiated also for six hour using thermal neutron source Ra-Be (α,n). Afterward, new samples were taken from some volunteers, and the process repeated with different lengths of exposure to the radiation (12, 18, and 24 hours). It was found that the number of red blood corpuscles, white blood cells, and hemoglobin concentration decrease the longer the samples are exposed to thermal neutrons. This trend was consistent with each volunteer's samples, and came regardless of whether they were male or female.