"Radiation, yes indeed! You hear the most outrageous lies about it.
Half-baked, goggle-boxed do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you.
Pernicious nonsense! Everybody could stand 100 chest x-rays a year.
They should have them too." - J. Frank Parnell in "Repo Man"
Brief vague notes on x-ray safety:
Natural background radiation is the equivalent of 50 to 100 chest x-rays
per year, 300 mRem (mRem is equal to mRad for x-radiation.)
Even the potassium in your bones contributes 40mRem/yr exposure.
Exposure is never zero, but it can be insignificant.
One chest x-ray carries the same death risk as driving 20 miles.
To double your lifetime risk of cancer: 500,000 mRem whole body
Slightest radiation burn: 300,000 mRem
OSHA limits for skin/extremities: 50,000 mRem/year
No cancer has been observed at less than 10,000 mRem doses. All
other health warnings are based on stats and worst-case estimates.
In large populations, 1,000 mRem dose shortens lifetime by 1 day
Lower threshold for radiation sickness is 75,000 mRem, LD50 for
radiation sickness is around 400,000 mRem (if not treated.)
Full-body radiation exposure is dangerous, exposure to limbs far less
so. Eyes are sensitive (radiation cataracts) Standing near an
unshielded x-ray tube is dangerously stupid, but sticking your hand into
an x-ray beam isn't nearly the same.
A recent paper shows that some people maybe be far more cancer-prone
than others for x-ray exposure.
Low-dose x-ray danger is speculative and controversial. If cancer
behaves like skin irritation from sunburn, then below a certain
threshold the danger falls to zero. But if it behaves as cumulative
poison, then low doses simply keep the risk from increasing very fast.
Don't forget that lifetime cancer risk is already high. To judge a
cancer risk to be large or insignificant, we must compare it to your
"normal" 20% risk of death by cancer.
Equal risk increase:
40 miles drive in car (accident)
40 tbsp peanut butter (colon cancer)
2 days lived in NYC (air pollution)
6 minutes in a canoe (drowning)
10 mRem full-body radiation (cancer)
Position statement of Health Physics Society re. radiation risk
http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/hprisk.htm
ISU, Radiation Information Network
http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/risk.htm
Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm
http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/www/outreach/pdf/chapter7/chapter7.pdf
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William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb at amasci com http://amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
Seattle, WA 425-222-5066 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
