The medical industry is very aware of the repair time for acute doses of radiation from radiation therapy. for cancer. At least they understand what doses at what intervals they can give to patients with severe but not fatal side-effects.
That Byers did not die after swallowing 50 times the total lethal dose is obvious: the dose rate is the major factor. Byers died of a fulminating cancer. But most cancers take about 10 years to appear after exposure, and the risk is random. It is therefore unwise to conclude from the observations that 1 mGy/day is safe.
Three grams of Ra-226 puts out a hell of a lot more than 75000 Bq. Kind of surprised at this statement as this isotope is the easiest of them all to calculate this for.
The medical industry is very aware of the repair time for acute doses of radiation from radiation therapy. for cancer. At least they understand what doses at what intervals they can give to patients with severe but not fatal side-effects.
More examples of dose rate data in the dial painters' post, https://jackdevanney.substack.com/p/the-radium-dial-painters-and-snt
That Byers did not die after swallowing 50 times the total lethal dose is obvious: the dose rate is the major factor. Byers died of a fulminating cancer. But most cancers take about 10 years to appear after exposure, and the risk is random. It is therefore unwise to conclude from the observations that 1 mGy/day is safe.
Three grams of Ra-226 puts out a hell of a lot more than 75000 Bq. Kind of surprised at this statement as this isotope is the easiest of them all to calculate this for.
Erik,,
Thanks. I don't know how I screwed that one up. Bailey claimed each bottle contained
1 microCurie each of Ra-226 and Ra-228 which would put out 75 kBq. But I uCi of ra-226 is about 1 micro gram of Ra-226, unless I messed it up again.