RHP's and radiation

[Coluber42]

No, it's not too much radiation. First off, all heat sources produce radiation, by definition. But when people talk about "radiation" that causes cancer, it's the generally the shorter wavelengths they're talking about: x rays, gamma rays, etc; or radiation in much higher doses than is produced by a heat element alone. UV plus a heat source doesn't raise the risk of cancer any more than the UV source does by itself. I read a paper awhile ago about a bunch of reptiles getting cancer from one or two specific models of higher-output UV bulbs. To their credit, the manufacturers did recall and reformulate their products when they found out. Whether or not you provide your animal with UV (I have UV bulbs in my ball python's cage) has nothing to do with how much "radiation" they get from their heat source.

Like I said, EVERYTHING gives off EM radiation, yourself included. Animals have detectors (also known as eyes) to make use of electromagnetic radiation in their environment (i.e, light). Ball pythons also have another kind of detector, which are those heat pits on their faces, which detect deep infrared in the spectrum given off by things at around a warm-blooded animal's body temperature. That's why you have to heat up their rats in order for them to recognize their food.

There are also other ways of making EM radiation besides just heat. Things like microwave ovens, radio transmitters, LED's, etc, all do that. So it's possible to get an unsafe amount of other wavelengths of EM radiation from sources like that. But not from something that's basically just warm.