Ionizing radiation has many practical uses, but it is also dangerous to human health. Both aspects are treated below.Ionizing radiation is either particle radiation or electromagnetic radiation in which an individual particle/photon carries enough energy to ionize an atom or molecule by completely removing an electron from its orbit. If the individual particles do not carry this amount of energy, it is essentially impossible for even a large flood of particles to cause ionization. These ionizations, if enough occur, can be very destructive to living tissue, and can cause DNA damage and mutations. Examples of particle radiation that are ionizing may be energetic electrons, neutrons, atomic ions or photons. Electromagnetic radiation can cause ionization if the energy per photon, or frequency, is high enough, and thus the wavelength is short enough. The amount of energy required varies between molecules being ionized but Far ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays are all always ionizing radiation, while near ultraviolet and visible light are ionizing to some molecules and microwaves, and radio waves are non-ionizing radiation.However, visible light is so common that molecules that are ionized by it will often react nearly spontaneously unless protected by materials that block the visible spectrum. Examples include photographic film and some molecules involved in photosynthesis.
