Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security is encouraging Hoosiers to get involved with Radiation Awareness Week this week.

The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements says people receive most of their average annual radiation from natural sources in the environment, while approximately 48 percent comes from medical procedures.

Aside from learning about the different sources and types of radiation, Radiation Awareness Week is also an excellent time to become familiar with radiological emergency preparedness. Many Hoosiers living in the northwestern counties of Indiana are in the ingestion pathway zone of a nuclear power plant, the 50-mile radius around a nuclear power plant where the general public may be at risk of ingesting contaminated food and water during the events of a radiological incident.

For more information on the REP program at IDHS, visit https://www.in.gov/dhs/3523.htm.

To learn more about the different types of radiation and the impacts it has on human health, visit https://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/.