Well yes and no.
I set the emissions to kill all stalkers when the emission wave hits them (since now there is actually a visible wave) since in many cases an emission has killed all life forms when it came into contact with them.
For example when the first emission occurred and the Zone was created, all life forms died that got caught by the emission. In Clear Sky intro the emission is said to kill all of the others in Scar's group while leaving Scar unharmed. Also throughout CS the emissions are the killing type.
Only thing that should people into zombies is the Brainscorcher which is by the time of CoP disabled by Strelok. However, lets not forget that in the end of Clear Sky, the emission that hits the player and the rest of the people fighting at CNPP dont kill anyone but turns them into sort of a coma. After the emission had hit them and turned people into wrecks, the Monolith forces gathered everyone in order to start brainwashing the victims of the emission into ranks of Monolith.
So this makes me think there are two types of emissions. Ones that have increased amount of energy capable of simply killing all lifeforms it comes in contact with and emissions with less energy which are used to boost the ranks of the Monolith army.
Basically my opinion behind this theory is that the Brainscorcher was made to turn people into zombies and these zombies usually wander around areas as a scare and as another nasty barrier for stalkers who want to journey into the heart of the Zone. Powerful emissions are meant for killing those who reached the center (Strelok in CS) of the Zone and less powerful emissions are for boosting Monolith numbers.
I play CoP Complete with the option that the emission kills people when the wave comes in contact with unprotected victims. But you dont go wrong if you decide that the emissions are the "zombie turning type" and make it so that the people turn to zombies instead. You dont go wrong, its just matter of taste.
At least if we go along the theory of having two types of emissions.
