Measuring Radiation Exposure: What is a Sievert?

What is a Sievert, and why are they used to measure radiation exposure?

Although we're exposed to ionizing radiation all the time, high levels can cause illness, disease, and even death. Yet working out how much radiation leads to specific health outcomes is complicated by the fact that different types and sources of radiation vary in their ability to cause damage, and where in the body exposure occurs makes a difference.

To get around this, the Sievert was developed as a measure of biologically relevant dose - a measure of how much harm ionizing radiation might cause. It combines the amount and energy of the radiation, with the type of radiation, and the body tissues exposed, to come up with a way of estimating risk, and carrying out risk assessments.

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#radiation #risk #safety #sievert

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[SirBillyMays]

Welcome back Risk Bites! Love your content, so I'm happy to see you going again. Good to see that you haven't lost your style and touch!

[wordcarr]

If I take the recommended max sievert dose per year = 1 milli-sievert, and divide that by 365 days/yr, I get 0.001/365 = 2.74E-6 = 2.74 micro-sieverts per day = 2.74 µSv/day = 2.74/24 or i.e.
= *0.114 µSv/hr* this may be a more useful value because µSv/hr is what a standard geiger reads out. (a geiger counter reading is based on a sample taken in seconds, and then it estimates what an hour's worth of that radiation dose would be - of course, this instant reading, and hence the hour's µSv estimation, changes with time)

[xhagx]

That was very helpful in understanding the concept of a sievert thank you

[BADALICE]

Thanks for explaining that. Now to figure out how it compairs to roentegn mrasurements.

[henocasf]

thank you, now i can estimate about how much radiation I took in when i hiked into chernobyl

[wratchedspooky]

You can run on for a long time; run on for a long time, run on for a long time, sooner or later it'll hunt you down...

[hydro]

And some of the info said that we receive
About 0.003 sieverts of background radiation annually.

[himmatbhapkar]

I did CT scan of abdominal pelvic with Radiation dose of total 21 Msv does it harmful, develop cancer

[jaffacalling]

I'm guessing sieverts don't account for alpha emitters being blocked by your skin when emitted outside your body?

[janettesmith]

My monitor has gone off twice in the last 24 hrs. The last time it was reading 001.21..

[jacksalvatierra]

I dont know what to do. The Dr. ask me to get a Chest & Pelvis CT-Scan, which is equivalent to been expose to 500 X-R. And probably to 30 mSv? And i have been already exposed to 4 CT Scanners before.

[Damnzz]

ik voel die straling tot aan mn gebit

i

[WRND]

They're the worst "measurement" in actual physics and data logging as apposed to theoretical healthcare - the only way to actually accurately measure sieverts is by determining how much damage radiation has done to people... Obvious there is a conflict of interests in conducting that sort of science. Personally, I'd much rather know how much actual radiation is being measured, what types, and where. I don't want to be the canary in a coal mine.

[chrisneibauer]

Alpha more damage than gamma? This guy hasn't a clue what he is talking about.

[BarnacleButtock]

I still don't know how sieverts relate to more archaic forms of radiation dosing or otherwise different measurements. Useless video