3 ms·
It isn't so much the source of the radiation, as it is what your body does with the material. When you eat a banana, your body gains additional potassium, and
by Merad 10y ago
It isn't so much the source of the radiation, as it is what your body does with the material. When you eat a banana, your body gains additional potassium, and over the next several days your kidneys will expel that excess. So, your exposure to the tiny amount of Potassium-40 in the banana is very brief. OTOH, your body treats the Strontium-90 in nuclear fallout like calcium, depositing it in your bones and bone marrow subjecting you to continuous radiation exposure. Likewise Iodine-131 will concentrate in the thyroid.
- mungoman2 10y agoWhat about then if you eat a banana daily, so there is no chance of fully expelling the potassium
- Merad 10y agoBear in mind that your body always contains potassium (mostly non-radioactive, but a tiny bit is radioactive). Eating a banana just slightly increases your exposure for a short time. If we take a look at our handy dandy xkcd radiation chart[1], we can see that eating a banana every day for a year exposes you to about 36.5 uSv radiation, slightly less than you get during a six hour airline flight. By comparison, the potassium naturally contained in your body already exposes you to 390 uSv radiation in a year. [1]: http://xkcd.com/radiation/ http://xkcd.com/radiation/