Radiation safety

Locating Radiation by The Mobile Phone

In accidents or terror attacks which are suspected to involve radioactive substances, it’s difficult to determine whether people nearby have been exposed to radiation and to what extent. By analyzing mobile phones and other objects which come in close contact with the body, it’s possible to retrieve important information on radiation exposure. This has been shown by a new thesis from Lund University in Sweden.

According to the university’s site, the nuclear power plant disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima are two examples of accidents which have exposed the population to ionizing radiation. “Being able to quickly determine whether someone has been exposed to radiation is a major advantage. In case of a nuclear power plant disaster, many people are worried, even when only a small number of people have been exposed to harmful levels of radiation”, explains Therése Geber-Bergstrand, medical physicist and doctoral student at Lund University.