Editing Radioactive decay (section)

===X-rays===
The discovery of X‑rays by [[Wilhelm Röntgen]] in 1895 led to widespread experimentation by scientists, physicians, and inventors. Many people began recounting stories of burns, hair loss and worse in technical journals as early as 1896. In February of that year, Professor Daniel and Dr. Dudley of [[Vanderbilt University]] performed an experiment involving X-raying Dudley's head that resulted in his hair loss. A report by Dr. H.D. Hawks, of his suffering severe hand and chest burns in an X-ray demonstration, was the first of many other reports in ''Electrical Review''.<ref name="SansareKhanna2011">{{cite journal |last1=Sansare |first1=K. |last2=Khanna |first2=V. |last3=Karjodkar |first3=F. |title=Early victims of X-rays: a tribute and current perception |journal=Dentomaxillofacial Radiology |volume=40 |issue=2 |year=2011 |pages=123–125 |issn=0250-832X |doi=10.1259/dmfr/73488299 |pmc=3520298 |pmid=21239576}}</ref>

Other experimenters, including [[Elihu Thomson]] and [[Nikola Tesla]], also reported burns. Thomson deliberately exposed a finger to an X-ray tube over a period of time and suffered pain, swelling, and blistering.<ref name="physics.isu.edu">{{Cite web |url=http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/50yrs.htm |title=Ronald L. Kathern and Paul L. Ziemer, he First Fifty Years of Radiation Protection, physics.isu.edu |access-date=25 November 2013 |archive-date=12 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912164652/http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/50yrs.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Other effects, including ultraviolet rays and ozone, were sometimes blamed for the damage,<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Nikola Tesla and the Discovery of X-rays |journal=RadioGraphics |date=July 2008 |volume=28 |issue=4 |pmid=18635636 |pages=1189–92 |doi=10.1148/rg.284075206 |last1=Hrabak |first1=M. |last2=Padovan |first2=R.S. |last3=Kralik |first3=M. |last4=Ozretic |first4=D. |last5=Potocki |first5=K.|doi-access=free }}</ref> and many physicians still claimed that there were no effects from X-ray exposure at all.<ref name="physics.isu.edu" />

Despite this, there were some early systematic hazard investigations, and as early as 1902 [[William Herbert Rollins]] wrote almost despairingly that his warnings about the dangers involved in the careless use of X-rays were not being heeded, either by industry or by his colleagues. By this time, Rollins had proved that X-rays could kill experimental animals, could cause a pregnant guinea pig to abort, and that they could kill a foetus. He also stressed that "animals vary in susceptibility to the external action of X-light" and warned that these differences be considered when patients were treated by means of X-rays.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}