Background ionising radiation: a pictorial perspective

Ionising radiation from natural sources, known as background radiation, has existed on earth since the earth’s formation. The exposure of humans and other living creatures to this radiation is a feature of the earth’s environment which is continuing and inescapable. The word “radiation” brings fear to many people: a fear of the unknown, as human’s senses cannot detect the presence of ionising radiation. In this study, a catalogue of images of the distribution of radioactivity in every day objects and foods has been produced using an imaging plate from a computed radiography cassette. The aim of the study is that by visually demonstrating that every day objects and foods are radioactive would alleviate the fear of “radiation” by becoming aware that we live in a radioactive environment and even our body is radioactive.