Radiation Risks in Perspective
- Living next to a nuclear power plant for a year exposes you to slightly less extra radiation than eating one banana.
- Flying from New York to LA exposes you to twice as much radiation as a chest x-ray.
- A mammogram exposes you to three times the radiation received by people exposed to the maximum external dose from the Three Mile Island accident.
- A dental x-ray exposes you to a third more radiation than spending March 17 in an average town near the Fukushima plant.
- The yearly radiation dose from the natural potassium in your body is 13 times more than the EPA annual release limit for a US nuclear power plant.
- The maximum annual routine radiation exposure permitted for radiation workers in the US is almost 17 times the dose received from a mammogram. It is half the lowest annual radiation exposure clearly linked to any increased cancer risk.
Thanks. This is interesting.
Oh no, I ate a banana this morning. I should be glowing by now.
Looks like everyone is over reacting, as they always do whenever “nukes” are involved.
Fascinating chart. Thanks for posting the link to it.
I think it depends on which nuclear plant you live next to. The Three Mile Island zip code is probably not included in the study.
Nifty chart. Good information. Good post.
Helpful – but should point out that your comparisons should state that you are comparing effective whole body dose (especially when looking at dental x-ray etc). Effective whole body dose (unit Sv) can be used to compare risk from different types of exposures (there are issues with that, LNT and such like, but that is for another post!). This enables the committed effective dose from internal incorporation of radioactive material, to be compared to external radiation (e.g. from dental x-ray).
I keep seeing these one-off pieces about how radiation does not harm you. It is my understanding that radiation exposure is cumulative. How about a stat of people living next to a nuke plant for 20 years? Or a dental techs total radiation exposure over their lifetime? This will tell us how safe it is. Not some hyperbolic piece saying a dental x-ray is the same as spending a day at Fukushima. How about if you stand 2 miles away from the plant and drank from a local well? I dare anyone to do it. Even today with the so called lower levels. I dare you…