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by kedihacker 496 days ago
I feel uncomfortable around x-ray rooms. Can humans feel radiation or I am making it up?
5 comments

Could be a million things you subconsciously notice.

* the warning signage

* things that are related to the lead shielding (micro changes in gravity, smell of lead salts, ...)

* infrasound caused by the machinery

* people waiting for an x-ray around who are less-than-happy...

The problem with this kind of thing is that it is often highly individual, and barely, if all measurable with our current scientific instruments. Some people keep claiming that humans are incapable of even hearing infrasound, or sense gravity, claiming anyone who can sense them is spreading new-age esoteric nonsense or is mentally ill. See also: Electrosensitivity.

I'm not saying these things do or do not exist, just that it is in the realm of possibility.

Does it make break down oxygen into ozone ? If it does maybe some people smell it
I wouldn't worry much as an X-ray recipient. There was talk in the 1950s about the trade off of getting a routine chest X-ray, say to check if you have pneumonia if you see your doc about a respiratory infection, vs a hypothetical risk of cancer.

Today X-ray dosages are way less because they use

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_radiography

so I wouldn't be afraid to get one. The radiology technician though needs to take special precautions because they are around it all day. Personally I would avoid a CAT scan if it were feasible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scan#Adverse_effects

The mandatory shielding around these rooms is robust. I shadowed a technician inspecting a newly fitted x-ray room and observed the very sensitive equipment used to verify absence of leakage. There was a small puncture in the lead shielding that was quickly found and resulted in a delay until patched.

I don't know what you mean by "around" but if you mean walking down the hallway outside the x-ray room, my guess it's the low frequency sound these machines often produce that you're reacting to and not x-rays themselves. Not to mention the almost sci-fi signage alerting your brain to danger.

And inside the shielding envelope, modern x-ray equipment is still at very low levels unless you're the patient (and even as the patient, imaging requires much lower levels than in the past).

Nah, energy is way too low. If they emitted enough for you to feel it you'd be dead in a week.

I certainly felt my last MRI though. New machine, so probably high powered. Abdominal/liver MRI. Every time the RF was on I could feel a gentle warmth throughout my midsection. Weird but cool.

Humans cannot feel x-rays in the dosages you'd experience in an x-ray room. A sufficiently powerful x-ray would feel hot the same way a bright light does.