What If We Ate Uranium?
Scan the periodic table, and we may spot a lot of similar words you'd find on an FDA food label: potassium, iron, calcium. But look on the bottom row, and we will see something We're more Possibly to associate with news regarding nuclear accords than a box of breakfast cereal: uranium. We can't help but wonder — what if you picked up a containerful and started eating? Let's back up and take a closer look at atomic number 92. Uranium may be a dense, weakly radioactive metal that is naturally found in soil, rock and water. Once mining uranium from the bottom, experts manipulate its 3 isotopes to produce depleted and enriched variations; the previous is less radioactive and used to create bullets and armour plating, while the latter used to in nuclear weapons and power plants.
But we don't have to add defence manufacturing or in an exceedingly place equipped with cooling towers to be exposed to uranium. In fact, eating uranium is one in all the most common means of exposure. Crops like potatoes and turnips are among the most uranium-rich foods in our diet, but they aren't the only ones: according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average person chuck 0.07 to 1.1 micrograms of Uranium per day.[source: EPA]
The good news is we don't get to abstain from root vegetables anytime soon. That daily uranium consumption isn't nearly enough to be harmful, especially since your body has a hard time absorbing uranium as it is [source: Keith et al]. Between 95 and 99 % of the uranium you ingest is excreted in faeces, and you urinate 70 % of the rest within 24 hours [source: ATSDR]. A small amount of uranium will stay in your bones anywhere from months to years after ingestion, but eating uranium is much less toxic than inhaling it.
But what if, instead of being an element within the food on your plate, uranium is that the main course? you might not be surprised to find out that eating large doses of a radioactive substance leads to an enhanced chance of developing cancer. however long-term concerns about radiation exposure pale in comparison to the immediate effects of chemical toxicity. uranium mainly targets the kidneys: damage starts to appear after taking in 25 milligrams, while intakes of over 50 milligrams can cause renal failure and death [source: Argonne National Laboratory]. additionally, studies of rats that ingest uranium over long periods have shown changes in brain chemistry [source: ATSDR]. Fortunately, while there is lots of reason to believe uranium is lethal in high doses, there are no known human deaths from "oral exposure" to uranium [source: Keith et al.]. Still, instead of eating the kind of yellowcake that's made with uranium ore, we're better off sticking with the type of cake you high with chocolate frosting.
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