Orders of magnitude (radiation)

Recognized effects of higher acute radiation doses are described in more detail in the article on radiation poisoning. Although the International System of Units (SI) defines the sievert (Sv) as the unit of radiation dose equivalent, chronic radiation levels and standards are still often given in units of millirems (mrem), where 1 mrem equals 1/1000 of a rem and 1 rem equals 0.01 Sv. Light radiation sickness begins at about 50–100 rad (0.5–1 gray (Gy), 0.5–1 Sv, 50–100 rem, 50,000–100,000 mrem).

The following table includes some dosages for comparison purposes, using millisieverts (mSv) (one thousandth of a sievert). The concept of radiation hormesis is relevant to this table – radiation hormesis is a hypothesis stating that the effects of a given acute dose may differ from the effects of an equal fractionated dose. Thus 100 mSv is considered twice in the table below – once as received over a 5-year period, and once as an acute dose, received over a short period of time, with differing predicted effects. The table describes doses and their official limits, rather than effects.

Level (mSv)	Level in standard form (mSv)	Duration	Hourly equivalent (μSv/hour)	Description
0.001	1×10^−3	Hourly	1	Cosmic ray dose rate on commercial flights varies from 1 to 10 μSv/hour, depending on altitude, position and solar sunspot phase.[1]
0.01	1×10^−2	Daily	0.4	Natural background radiation, including radon[2]
0.06	6×10^−2	Acute	-	Chest X-ray (AP+Lat)[3]
0.07	7×10^−2	Acute	-	Transatlantic airplane flight.
0.09	9×10^−2	Acute	-	Dental X-ray (Panoramic)[3]
0.1	1×10^−1	Annual	0.011	Average USA dose from consumer products[4]
0.15	1.5×10^−1	Annual	0.017	USA EPA cleanup standard
0.25	2.5×10^−1	Annual	0.028	USA NRC cleanup standard for individual sites/sources
0.27	2.7×10^−1	Annual	0.031	Yearly dose from natural cosmic radiation at sea level (0.5 in Denver due to altitude)[4]
0.28	2.8×10^−1	Annual	0.032	USA yearly dose from natural terrestrial radiation (0.16-0.63 depending on soil composition)[4]
0.46	4.6×10^−1	Acute	-	Estimated largest off-site dose possible from March 28, 1979 Three Mile Island accident
0.48	4.8×10^−1	Day	20	USA NRC public area exposure limit
0.66	6.6×10^−1	Annual	0.075	Average USA dose from human-made sources[2]
0.7	7×10^−1	Acute	-	Mammogram[3]
1	1×10^0	Annual	0.11	Limit of dose from man-made sources to a member of the public who is not a radiation worker in the US and Canada[2][5]
1.1	1.1×10^0	Annual	0.13	1980 average USA radiation worker occupational dose[2]
1.2	1.2×10^0	Acute	-	Abdominal X-ray[3]
2	2×10^0	Annual	0.23	USA average medical and natural background Human internal radiation due to radon, varies with radon levels[4]
2	2×10^0	Acute	-	Head CT[3]
3	3×10^0	Annual	0.34	USA average dose from all natural sources[2]
3.66	3.66×10^0	Annual	0.42	USA average from all sources, including medical diagnostic radiation doses
4	4×10^0	Duration of the pregnancy	0.6	Canada CNSC maximum occupational dose to a pregnant woman who is a designated Nuclear Energy Worker.[5]
5	5×10^0	Annual	0.57	USA NRC occupational limit for minors (10% of adult limit) USA NRC limit for visitors[6]
5	5×10^0	Pregnancy	0.77	USA NRC occupational limit for pregnant women
6.4	6.4×10^0	Annual	0.73	High Background Radiation Area (HBRA) of Yangjiang, China[7]
7.6	7.6×10^0	Annual	0.87	Fountainhead Rock Place, Santa Fe, NM natural
8	8×10^0	Acute	-	Chest CT[3]
10	1×10^1	Acute	-	Lower dose level for public calculated from the 1 to 5 rem range for which USA EPA guidelines mandate emergency action when resulting from a nuclear accident[2] Abdominal CT[3]
14	1.4×10^1	Acute	-	^18F FDG PET scan,[8] Whole Body
50	5×10^1	Annual	5.7	USA NRC/ Canada CNSC occupational limit for designated Nuclear Energy Workers[5](10 CFR 20)
100	1×10^2	5 years	2.3	Canada CNSC occupational limit over a 5-year dosimetry period for designated Nuclear Energy Workers[5]
100	1×10^2	Acute	-	USA EPA acute dose level estimated to increase cancer risk 0.8%[2]
120	1.2×10^2	30 years	0.46	Exposure, long duration, Ural mountains, lower limit, lower cancer mortality rate[9]
150	1.5×10^2	Annual	17	USA NRC occupational eye lens exposure limit
170	1.7×10^2	Acute		Average dose for 187 000 Chernobyl recovery operation workers in 1986[10][11]
175	1.75×10^2	Annual	20	Guarapari, Brazil natural radiation sources
250	2.5×10^2	2 hours	125 000	(125 mSv/hour) Whole body dose exclusion zone criteria for US nuclear reactor siting[12] (converted from 25 rem)
250	2.5×10^2	Acute	-	USA EPA voluntary maximum dose for emergency non-life-saving work[2]
260	2.6×10^2	Annual	30	Calculated from 260 mGy per year peak natural background dose in Ramsar[13]
400-900	4–9×10^2	Annual	46-103	Unshielded in interplanetary space.[14]
500	5×10^2	Annual	57	USA NRC occupational whole skin, limb skin, or single organ exposure limit
500	5×10^2	Acute	-	Canada CNSC occupational limit for designated Nuclear Energy Workers carrying out urgent and necessary work during an emergency.[5] Low-level radiation sickness due to short-term exposure[15]
750	7.5×10^2	Acute	-	USA EPA voluntary maximum dose for emergency life-saving work[2]
1000	10×10^2	Hourly	1 000 000	Level reported during Fukushima I nuclear accidents, in immediate vicinity of reactor[16]
3000	3×10^3	Acute	-	Thyroid dose (due to iodine absorption) exclusion zone criteria for US nuclear reactor siting[12] (converted from 300 rem)
4800	4.8×10^3	Acute	-	LD50 (actually LD50/60) in humans from radiation poisoning with medical treatment estimated from 480 to 540 rem.[17]
5000	5×10^3	Acute	-	Calculated from the estimated 510 rem dose fatally received by Harry Daghlian on August 21, 1945 at Los Alamos and lower estimate for fatality of Russian specialist on April 5, 1968 at Chelyabinsk-70.[18]
5000	5×10^3			5 000 - 10 000 mSv. Most commercial electronics can survive this radiation level.[19]
16 000	1.6×10^4	Acute		Highest estimated dose to Chernobyl emergency worker diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome[11]
20 000	2×10^4	Acute	2 114 536	Interplanetary exposure to solar particle event (SPE) of October 1989.[20][21]
21 000	2.1×10^4	Acute	-	Calculated from the estimated 2100 rem dose fatally received by Louis Slotin on May 21, 1946 at Los Alamos and lower estimate for fatality of Russian specialist on April 5, 1968 Chelyabinsk-70.[18]
48 500	4.85×10^4	Acute	-	Roughly calculated from the estimated 4500 + 350 rad dose for fatality of Russian experimenter on June 17, 1997 at Sarov.[18]
60 000	6×10^4	Acute	-	Roughly calculated from the estimated 6000 rem doses for several Russian fatalities from 1958 onwards, such as on May 26, 1971 at the Kurchatov Institute. Lower estimate for fatality of Cecil Kelley at Los Alamos on December 30, 1958.[18]
100 000	1×10^5	Acute	-	Roughly calculated from the estimated 10000 rad dose for fatality at the United Nuclear Fuels Recovery Plant on July 24, 1964.[18]
10 000 000 000	1×10^10			The most radiation-hardened electronics can survive this radiation level.[22]
70 000 000 000	7×10^10	Hourly	70 000 000 000 000	Estimated dose rate for the inner wall in ITER (2 kGy/s with an approximate weighting factor of 10)[23]

Comparison of Radiation Doses - includes the amount detected on the trip from Earth to Mars by the RAD on the MSL (2011 - 2013).[24][25][26][27]

See also

• Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE)

External links

• unh.edu: The Carrington event: Possible doses to crews in space from a comparable event, received in 2004 and concludes an interplanetary dose for a Carrington event at 34 - 45 Gy depending on type of flare spectrum and using a 1 gram/cm² aluminium shield (3.7 mm thick). Dose can be decreased down to 3 Gy through the use of a 10 gram/cm² aluminium shield (3.7 cm thick).

References

1. "Annex B: Exposures from natural radiation sources" (PDF). UNSCEAR 2000 Report: Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation. 1 Sources. p. 88, Figure 3.
2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/env_rpt/aser95/tb-a-2.pdf Archived 2010-11-22 at the Wayback Machine)
3. Health Physics Society (http://www.hps.org/documents/meddiagimaging.pdf)
4. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (http://www.ornl.gov/sci/env_rpt/aser95/appa.htm Archived 2004-06-23 at the Wayback Machine)
5. Radiation Protection Regulations, Canada
6. "Annex B: Exposures from natural radiation sources" (PDF). UNSCEAR 2000 Report: Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation. 1 Sources. Orvieto town, Italy
7. Tao Z, Cha Y, Sun Q (July 1999). "[Cancer mortality in high background radiation area of Yangjiang, China, 1979–1995]". Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi (in Chinese). 79 (7): 487–92. PMID 11715418.
8. "Radiation Exposure from Medical Exams and Procedures" (PDF). Health Physics Society. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2004-08-18. Retrieved 2010-09-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. UNSCEAR 2000 Report, Annex J, Exposures and effects of the Chernobyl Accident (PDF). United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. 2000. p. 526.
11. "Chernobyl: Assessment of Radiological and Health Impact. Chapter IV Dose estimates". OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. 2002.
12. 10 CFR Part 100.11 Section 1
13. Dissanayake C (May 2005). "Of Stones and Health: Medical Geology in Sri Lanka". Science. 309 (5736): 883–5. doi:10.1126/science.1115174. PMID 16081722. high as 260 mGy/year
14. R.A. Mewaldt; et al. (2005-08-03). "The Cosmic Ray Radiation Dose in Interplanetary Space – Present Day and Worst-Case Evaluations" (PDF). 29th International Cosmic Ray Conference Pune (2005) 00, 101-104. p. 103. Retrieved 2008-03-08.CS1 maint: location (link)
15. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/ars.asp)
16. "Japan's Chernobyl". Spiegel. 2011-03-14. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
17. Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation
18. "A Review of Criticality Accidents" (PDF). Los Alamos National Laboratory. May 2000. pp. 16, 33, 74, 75, 87, 88, 89. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
19. ieee.org - Radiation Hardening 101: How To Protect Nuclear Reactor Electronics
20. Lisa C. Simonsen & John E. Nealy (February 1993). "Mars Surface Radiation Exposure for Solar Maximum Conditions and 1989 Solar Proton Events" (PDF) (published 2005-06-10). p. 9. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
21. Torsti, J.; Anttila, A.; Vainio, R. l Kocharov (1995-08-28). "Successive Solar Energetic Particle Events in the October 1989". International Cosmic Ray Conference (published 2016-02-17). 4: 140. Bibcode:1995ICRC....4..139T.
22. "RD53 investigation of CMOS radiation hardness up to 1Grad" (PDF). Retrieved April 3, 2015.
23. Henri Weisen: ITER Diagnostics, page 13. Accessed August 28, 2017
24. Kerr, Richard (31 May 2013). "Radiation Will Make Astronauts' Trip to Mars Even Riskier". Science. 340 (6136): 1031. Bibcode:2013Sci...340.1031K. doi:10.1126/science.340.6136.1031. PMID 23723213. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
25. Zeitlin, C. et al. (31 May 2013). "Measurements of Energetic Particle Radiation in Transit to Mars on the Mars Science Laboratory". Science. 340 (6136): 1080–1084. Bibcode:2013Sci...340.1080Z. doi:10.1126/science.1235989. PMID 23723233. S2CID 604569. Retrieved 31 May 2013.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
26. Chang, Kenneth (30 May 2013). "Data Point to Radiation Risk for Travelers to Mars". New York Times. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
27. Gelling, Cristy (June 29, 2013). "Mars trip would deliver big radiation dose; Curiosity instrument confirms expectation of major exposures". Science News. 183 (13): 8. doi:10.1002/scin.5591831304. Retrieved July 8, 2013.