3 ms·

I'm really surprised no one else is discussing this point. The article says that potassium stays mostly in solution in the body, which means that regardless of

I'm really surprised no one else is discussing this point. The article says that potassium stays mostly in solution in the body, which means that regardless of how many bananas you ate (or anything else with high levels of potassium) your body is just going to excrete most of it. So there is no real comparison to make between bananas and any dose of gamma+beta radiation, making the whole "banana equivalent dose" at best mistaken and at worst willfully misleading.

ramchip 16y ago
> So there is no real comparison to make between bananas and any dose of gamma+beta radiation Why is that? Let's say you receive a millirem by standing close to a nuclear power plant core. Then you eat a banana, which spends one day in your body before the potassium is excreted, giving your body one millirem of radiation in the process. What's the difference? I'll agree for iodine ingestion however. They could consider the radiation emitted over a human lifetime to be fairer.
- delackner 16y ago
  The article says the banana equivalent dose concept was intended to ridicule people who were afraid of nuclear power plant accidents. Such accidents would expose people to radioactive iodine, which, in the article itself says: "The combination of bioaccumulation and the greater penetrating power of ionizing Gamma radiation makes radioactive Iodine significantly more hazardous to humans than equivalent amounts of Potassium-40". So no, being in the vicinity of a nuclear accident at dose X of Gamma + Beta radiation in the form of iodine that is going to be absorbed into the thyroid (leading to continued further exposure) cannot be meaningfully compared to the same dose of just Beta radiation from potassium that is passed through the body and excreted.
  - ramchip 16y ago
    My point is that gamma/beta radiation is not "in the form of iodine". Iodine releases radiation; this radiation is the same, wherever it came from. Gamma and beta radiations can in fact be meaningfully compared on their effect on the body. The nature of the rays is taken into account when calculating the rem dose. See the radiation quality factors: http://www.nuclear.utah.edu/class_notes/5700/sup_9.doc http://www.nuclear.utah.edu/class_notes/5700/sup_9.doc

ramchip 16y ago

> So there is no real comparison to make between bananas and any dose of gamma+beta radiation Why is that? Let's say you receive a millirem by standing close to a nuclear power plant core. Then you eat a banana, which spends one day in your body before the potassium is excreted, giving your body one millirem of radiation in the process. What's the difference? I'll agree for iodine ingestion however. They could consider the radiation emitted over a human lifetime to be fairer.

delackner 16y ago
The article says the banana equivalent dose concept was intended to ridicule people who were afraid of nuclear power plant accidents. Such accidents would expose people to radioactive iodine, which, in the article itself says: "The combination of bioaccumulation and the greater penetrating power of ionizing Gamma radiation makes radioactive Iodine significantly more hazardous to humans than equivalent amounts of Potassium-40". So no, being in the vicinity of a nuclear accident at dose X of Gamma + Beta radiation in the form of iodine that is going to be absorbed into the thyroid (leading to continued further exposure) cannot be meaningfully compared to the same dose of just Beta radiation from potassium that is passed through the body and excreted.
- ramchip 16y ago
  My point is that gamma/beta radiation is not "in the form of iodine". Iodine releases radiation; this radiation is the same, wherever it came from. Gamma and beta radiations can in fact be meaningfully compared on their effect on the body. The nature of the rays is taken into account when calculating the rem dose. See the radiation quality factors: http://www.nuclear.utah.edu/class_notes/5700/sup_9.doc http://www.nuclear.utah.edu/class_notes/5700/sup_9.doc