You must always bear in mind the hazardous effects that X-ray beams can have on your own body. If you have a clear understanding of the nature of X-rays, then safety rules will be much more logical.
X-rays are a highly-penetrating form of ionising radiation. Radiation is energy in the form of waves or particles. Radiation is all around us. Humans have been exposed to radiation from natural sources since the dawn of time. This radiation cannot be avoided. But radiation is also produced from a wide variety of artificial sources.
People in many occupations use radiation-producing equipment in the workplace. Some of these occupations include doctors, nurses, technologists, dental hygienists, pharmacists and security screeners.
Radiation is harmful to the human body in excessive doses because it can damage cells. The most important material in the human body is DNA – it contains all the information needed to produce the biological material for human cells and whole body. Ionizing radiation can damage human DNA. Cells can repair certain levels of cell damage. At low doses, such as that received every day from natural background radiation, cellular damage is rapidly repaired. At higher levels, cell death results. At extremely high doses, cells cannot be replaced quickly enough, and tissues fail to function.
