Secret Squirrel On The Banana As A Measure Of Radiation Levels

Secret Squirrel recalls the ever changing levels of radioactivity at Fukushima,
and the also ever changing go around concerning what levels of what were measured in whatever and what were the safe levels then and the ever increasing upwards safe levels the government of Japan announced as things got ever worse.Well Secret Squirrel has pondered things and has considered that perhaps the Japanese government and others, were not actually lying to the people but just confused not only at the rising levels of radiation in the midst of the finally admitted three nuclear meltdowns,but to the actual ways and means of measuring things in a proper light so all things seemed to be pretty good all round. Well let's first start with the actual definitions and measurements of radioactivity.

Now...

1) The amount of radioactivity emitted by a source is measured in Becquerels or
Curies. The SI unit the becquerel (Bq), one decay per second. The traditional unit
Curie (Ci) is 3.7 × 1010 Bq and is about the radioactivity of a gram of radium.

2) The amount of radiation received by a source is measured in grays or rads. The
SI unit Gray (Gy) corresponds to one joule of energy absorbed by one kilogram of
matter. The traditional unit rad is 0.01 Gy.

3)The biological effect of radiation is measured in Sieverts or rems. Biologically
effective dose is the amount of radiation received multiplied by the relative
biological effectiveness (RBE) of the type of radiation source. For x-rays, the
RBE is 1. For alpha rays, the RBE is 20. The SI unit of effective dose is the
Sievert (Sv), which corresponds to one Gy of x-rays. A rem is 0.01 Sv.

In short it's coming at us every which way at the same time,and going in each and
every direction as well,so for some reason unbeknownst to us all, we have
Becquerels,Curies,Grays, Rads,Sieverts and Rems.Things have to be made much more simple, easier, we must simplify,and we can simplify things in such a manner that everybody can understand what's going on concerning emitted, received and
radiation absorbed biologically. Of course this has been beyond the ken and
abilities of nuclear scientists and politicians, it's rocket science it seems to
them all.Well, not so to Squirrel,nay, Squirrel has a solution. We must come up
with a suitably acceptable name and measure of radiation acceptable and easily
understood by all.and we have it, the Banana is proposed, the banana equivalent
dose, abbreviated BED to put it in simple terms that the lay men can understand
quite easily, as well as scientists and politicians as well. Besides bananas,
other foods that are rich in potassium (and therefore in 40K) are potatoes, kidney
beans, sunflower seeds, and nuts; especially brazil nuts, which may have up to 444
Bq/kg (12 nCi/kg) — four times the radioactivity of bananas.But I have selected
the banana since it is therefor a much finer form of measurement,much more
sensitive and therefor meaningful in a scientific measurement sort of way.

A banana equivalent dose (abbreviated BED) is a unit of radiation exposure,
informally defined as the dose a person will absorb from eating one banana,one
(1,and not more than one at any given time) Banana Equivalent Dose, 1 (One)
BED.The concept is based on the fact that bananas, like most organic material,
naturally contain a certain amount of radioactive isotopes—even in the absence of
any artificial pollution or contamination. The banana equivalent dose was meant to
express the severity of exposure to radiation, such as resulting from nuclear
power, nuclear weapons or medical procedures, in terms that would make sense to
most people,even politicians.

Specifically the BED is based on the banana itself, internally,having radioactive
potassium 40.The banana equivalent dose is the radiation exposure received by
eating a single banana. Radiation leaks from nuclear plants are often measured in
extraordinarily small units (the picocurie, a millionth of a millionth of a curie,
is typical). By comparing the exposure from these events to a banana equivalent
dose, a more realistic assessment of the actual risk can sometimes be obtained.

But why bother converting this to bananas? Partly because it's hoped BED is
friendlier than sieverts and grays and rads and rems, and all the other
paraphernalia.But  the BED is useful for several reasons.

First, it reminds us that radiation is commonplace. You can't get much more
ordinary than a banana.

Second, we know eating one banana won't kill us.

Third, think about eating 20 million bananas, equal to a dose causing severe,
sometimes fatal, radiation poisoning. You'd probably die from something other than
the radiation well before you were anywhere near 20 million. Please do not attempt
this at home. Even over an 80-year lifetime it's nearly 700 a day.At low doses the
bananas come in bunches, then rise through the thousands to the millions,
corresponding to micro-sieverts, milli-sieverts and sieverts, the SI
unit.Generally 1 banana equates to .1usv.(The standard measure of the biological
effect of radiation is the sievert. One sievert is a heck of a big dose, but one
tenth of a millionth of a sievert, or 0.1 micro sieverts, is roughly the dose from
eating one banana.)

Imagine newscasts and public information bulletins using the BED
unit............let's have a look say at a Japanese broadcast of say the Fukushima
situation.....

Here is a report from Japanese newsanchor of a government annoucement by Japanese Politician, I Fook Yew
    "Monitoring of radiation levels on the spot is ongoing. At point MP4, where a
reading of 1,015µSv was detected yesterday, a radiation level of 44.6µSv was
recorded at 00:30 this morning, and a level of 36.7µSv at 6:00am. After the start
of venting around 9:20, a reading of 76.9µSv was recorded at 9:20 and of 70.3µSv
at 9:30."

Now imagine the say, equivalent, but rather expressed in the much simpler and
easier to understand, Banana Equivalent Units....

"The radiation spiked up to 30 bananas a day (2 days ago) and then fell back down
to 1 to 2 bananas per day."

Now isn't that much more sane,simpler and easier to understand.Politicians and
government officals should love it, they could still lie by using incorrect BED
unit statements.

Now,what is it's relationship with standard units of radiation?Well the BED is a
radiation dose equivalent unit; that is, a unit for measuring potentially damaging
radiation absorbed by body tissue, rather than the total radiation (of any kind)
emitted by a source or absorbed by matter. The corresponding SI unit is the
sievert (Sv), defined as a radiation dose biologically equivalent to one joule of
absorbed gamma-ray energy per kilogram of tissue. In the U.S, an older unit, the
roentgen equivalent man (rem), equal to 0.01 sieverts, is sometimes used.
The absorbed radiation dose depends on the type and energy of the emitted
particles, as well as on the location of the source in the body (external,
inhaled, ingested, etc.). According to the US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), the conversion factor (CEDE) is 5.02 nanosieverts over 50 years for each
becquerel of isotopically pure potassium-40 ingested by an average adult.[7] Using
this factor, one banana equivalent dose comes out as about 5.02 nSv/Bq × 31 Bq/g × 0.5 g ˜ 78 nanosieverts = 0.078 µSv. In informal publications one often sees this estimate rounded up to 0.1 µSv.After the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the NRC detected radioactive iodine in local milk at levels of 20 picocuries/liter, a dose much less than one would receive from ingesting a single banana. Thus a 12 fl oz glass of the slightly radioactive milk would have about 1/75th BED (banana equivalent dose).

Here is a table of the number of bananas exposure, and the event that it results
from

500 million Bananas
Ten minutes next to Chernobyl reactor core after explosion and meltdown

80 million  Bananas
Fatal dose even with treatment

20 million Bananas
Severe radiation poisoning, fatal in some cases

500,000 Bananas
Maximum legal yearly dose for a US radiation worker

70,000 Bananas
Chest CT scan

40,000 Bananas
Ten years of normal background dose, 85% of which is from natural sources

4000 Bananas
Mammogram

1000 Bananas
Approximate total dose received at Fukushima Town Hall in two weeks following

accident

400 Bananas
Flight from London to New York

300 Bananas
Yearly release target for a nuclear power plant

200 Bananas
Chest X-ray

50 Bananas
Dental X-ray

1 Bananas
Eating a banana

0.5 Bananas
Sleeping with someone


Ah but what if politicians sense that we've gone bananas and all we understand and convert everything to is the singularity of the banana?

The answer is obvious; they'll say bananas should be banned.

Secret Squirrel,
MRL
MP,Dunny On The Wold,
Minister For Re-Deranged Re-Engineering.