Radiation Diatribe Part 2

Hey, not to be a total downer or anything, but I thought I would add some scientific data to my last post on radiation.

First of all, millisievert (mSv) is the name of the scientific unit of measurement for a radiation dose. Incidentally, on average, depending on where a person lives and the altitude and other factors, a person in the U.S. is exposed to approximately 3 mSv from naturally occurring radiation and cosmic radiation annually.

A coast to coast round trip flight on a commercial airplane would expose you to 0.03 mSv.
Dental x-ray (bitewing) 0.04 mSv
Dental x-ray (full-mouth) 0.150 mSv
Chest x-ray 0.1 mSv
Mammogram 0.7 mSv
CT of Abdomen/Pelvis 10 mSv
Vanessa’s estimated CT total dose 120 mSv
Hiroshima survivors average dose 200 mSv (exposure varied based on far away from the hypocenter)

The biggest risks from radiation are for developing leukemia or solid tumor cancers of the breast, thyroid, and lung. Exposure to 100 mSv puts one at a 1 per 1,000 risk whereas exposure to 30 mSv puts one at a 1 per 10,000 risk.

I hope this info helps to put everything radiation-wise in context and helps you to make good decisions about your radiation exposure. Like I said before, I am not going to worry about my exposure. I don’t lose sleep over it, but it does factor into other decisions I make, like whether to smoke a cigar or not, to decrease sugar intake, to increase antioxidant consumption, avoid nitrates/nitrites, etc.

Knowledge is power; power on, people!