The most dangerous and insidious problem in a post-war nuclear wasteland is radiation. Fallout makes good use of radiation as a constant threat. The explosion and shockwave do the most damage up front, obviously, but that’s over in a few minutes. If you’ve survived that part, then the rads might get you instead.
So what is radiation and why is it so bad? Radiation is emitted energy formed of waves or particles. It’s all around us, and we rely on several forms of radiation in day to day life. Sound waves and visible light are forms of radiation, which our senses have evolved to make use of. Plants use light to create energy by photosynthesis. Radio waves allow communication. Ultrasound and x-rays are used all the time in medical settings.
That all sounds good, right? It is, but not all radiation is safe. We know now that excessive exposure to UV light in sunlight increases the risk of skin cancer significantly. Yet UVB light exposure is important for producing vitamin D in our skin.
X-rays are used for diagnostic testing in hospitals, but excessive exposure can damage the thyroid, the reproductive organs and increase the risk of cancers. Some of the people who experimented with X-rays in the early days of its discovery ended up suffering hair loss, burns, cancers and even death.
Nuclear Warfare
Many elements of the periodic table are radioactive, such as uranium, plutonium, caesium. This means that they produce radiation. The energy contained in these elements can and has been harnessed for many purposes. Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, atoms could be split to produce energy and a chain reaction. The first nuclear reactor was used in 1942 in Chicago.
The reactor was developed as part of the Manhattan Project, the Allies plan to create atomic bombs. If you know your history, you know that this was in the middle of World War II. You will also know that just three years later, atomic bombs were used against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These bombs killed up to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and up to 80,000 in Nagasaki over the next few months. Beyond this, many more were injured and died from burns, radiation sickness, illness and malnutrition. The impact was massive. Radiation exposure increases the risk of cancer formation and birth defects, which we have seen time and again.
Effects of Radiation on Humans
Have you heard of the ‘Radium Girls’? They were women who worked in a factories painting luminous watch faces and hands from around 1917. The glow in the dark paint contained powdered radium. They were told it was harmless, and were told to put the brushes in their mouths to make a fine point of the bristles. They also used the paint on their nails, faces and teeth.
The companies scientists and chemists used protective equipment to prevent any exposure, while the women using the paint did not. Dental issues were the first to arise among the painters, with ulcers, tooth loss and failure of extraction sites to heal noted by dentists. Later, anaemia, bone fractures and necrosis of the jaw were reported, known as ‘radium jaw’ now. The women also reported loss of menstruation and inability to conceive, confirming the effect radiation can have on the reproductive organs.
The first dial painter died in 1923, after her jaw fell off. Yes, really. More illnesses and deaths followed. The companies pushed for doctors to blame other causes such as syphilis, an STI, to damage the women’s reputations. Thankfully, the man who invented the paint died in 1928 from the same issue, affecting his hands due to handling the radium. This proved that the radium was responsible, and paved the way for increased health and safety legislation in the workplace.
So what was going on? Acute radiation sickness is the culprit. High levels of exposure for a short period of time will cause illness quicker than low levels of exposure. Chronic exposure will lead to different illnesses. But let’s go over the known symptoms and effects of radiation exposure.
Radiation Sickness (Acute Radiation Syndrome)
Total dose higher than 0.7Gy (70 rad) within a few minutes. There are three types, depending on the body system involved. Parts of the body with rapidly dividing cells are more vulnerable, including the bone marrow and the gastrointestinal system.
Haematopoietic – the bone marrow. Blood cells come from the bone marrow. There are cells there dividing constantly. Radiation damages these cells, leading to aplastic anaemia. Blood cells stop being produced to replace the what is lost naturally. Infection is a risk because white blood cell numbers drop. You will also see anaemia due to reduced red blood cells, and bleeding disorders due to lack of platelets. Wound healing is delayed.
Gastrointestinal. This follows higher doses, 600-3000 rad. The person will experience nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and abdominal pain. The gut is constantly renewing it’s inner lining, so again, rapidly dividing cells are present. Without aggressive treatment such as bone marrow transplant, death is common at this level of exposure.
Neurovascular – the nervous system. Typically this happens at doses above 3000 rad, but it can be seen as low as 1000 rads. Neurological symptoms include dizziness, headaches, reduced consciousness and even seizures. These symptoms within a few hours with no vomiting, is almost always fatal even with aggressive treatment.
Radiation Burns
Skin changes after irradiation are common. Redness and itching will show up a few hours after exposure. Reddening, blistering and ulceration will develop over a few days to weeks. The skin can regenerate, but high doses on the skin can cause permanent damage and hair loss. This is why it’s called a radiation burn.
We know a lot about these effects due to the discovery of x-rays, the Radium Girls, the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear plant accidents in Chernobyl in 1986, Tokaimura in 1997 and 1999 and Fukushima in 2011.
Chronic Radiation Exposure
Chronic exposure to radiation can increase the risk of cancer and damage the DNA of the body’s cells, leading to mutations which could affect offspring. We are all exposed to some degree of radiation. There is background cosmic radiation, as well as the sunlight. Even bananas are radioactive, although it is far too low to cause any issues and it is physically impossible to eat enough bananas in a short enough time to cause radiation poisoning.
For this reason, there are regulations about maximum annual exposure limits to ionising radiation in the workplace. These limits may depend on the type of workplace. Monitoring exposure is essential in certain jobs. When I worked as a vet, we had dosimeters to wear when doing x-rays to monitor our exposure. We also had annual inspections of our equipment to ensure it was safe.
Radiation In Fallout
So, we know what happens in the real world with radiation. What about in the game? Conveniently we always have a Pip-Boy with a built in Geiger-counter. This detects radiation. The lethal limit for rads is 1000 Rads. Reach that level and you will die. This fits quite neatly with what we discussed relating to acute radiation syndrome, as anything above 1000 rad seems highly likely to be fatal.
The Fallout universe at least has RadAway and Rad-X available, to treat radiation sickness and increase your radiation tolerance respectively. You do have to assume, however, that most people not safely locked away in a vault, will be suffering from some degree of radiation sickness.
Most food and water has radiation. It hangs around in the environment for a long time. There’s a good account of the immediate days after the bombs fell at Germantown Police Headquarters, where a nurse is caring for some people suffering radiation sickness. Her journal entries document the aftermath of the bombs and the radiation effects.
In most settlements in Fallout, we don’t see a lot of children. While this could be because of a lack of resources and safety, it is likely that radiation is affecting conception and birth rates. We know that exposure can run the risk of birth defects, and damage to the reproductive organs.
What About Ghouls?
That’s the interesting thing. Ghouls were human, and after prolonged exposure to radiation, they changed. You can see that most ghouls have lost their hair, and there are extensive changes to their skin and eyes. They become immune to radiation, even healed by it or able to discharge it from their bodies in the case of Glowing Ones.
While some ghouls retain their memories and ability to think and speak, a lot end up ‘feral’. We also learn that most ghouls seem to eventually end up becoming feral after a couple of hundred years. This process is documented in Kiddie Kingdom in Nuka-World.
We don’t really know why some go feral immediately and some don’t. It could be an inherent resistance to radiation or some other factor. Some of the ghouls from Nuka-World, who were employees who sheltered at the park after the bombs, are searching for a cure for the ‘affliction’. Most people just think that it’s a thing that happens to ghouls eventually. This is why they are often excluded from society and ostracised.
Ghoulification prolongs the persons life for over two hundred years is surprising, when radiation is usually more likely to reduce expected life span. So there must be something different about the people who become ghouls. Ghouls are created deliberately, such as Eddie Winters and Hancock in Fallout 4. We also know that odd things can happen with ghoulification, like with Harold who is a ghoul that has a tree growing out of him, that eventually takes over his body.
Uranium Fever
We can conclude that a lot of thought has gone into the design of the games to account for radiation. Radiation presents a real danger in the world of Fallout. So keep an eye on that geiger counter as you explore the wasteland and grab any RadAway you can find!
For more science and story analysis of Fallout, watch this space. I will also be covering this topic in a video on YouTube, linked below. Any thoughts? Comment below. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next time! YouTube video is now live and can be found here.
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