Understanding the Measurements of Radiation Reported

Posted by Kyle Yates in Japan Related

The information below is from Wikipedia concerning radiation, which is something people in Japan are currently learning more about at a rapid pace because of the previous 2 explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Frequently used SI multiples are the millisievert (1 mSv = 10⁻³ Sv) and microsievert (1 μSv = 10⁻⁶ Sv) or (1 mSv = 0.001 Sv) and (1 μSv = 0.000001 Sv).

The millisievert is commonly used to measure the effective dose in diagnostic medical procedures (e.g., X-rays, nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography, and computed tomography). The natural background effective dose rate varies considerably from place to place, but typically is around 2.4 mSv/year [2] (pdf).

For acute (that is, received in a relatively short time, up to about one hour) full body equivalent dose, 1 Sv causes nausea, 2-5 Sv causes epilation or hair loss, hemorrhage and will cause death in many cases. More than 3 Sv will lead to LD 50/30 or death in 50% of cases within 30 days, and over 6 Sv survival is unlikely. (For more details, see radiation poisoning.)