One mSv is the average accumulated background radiation for 1 year
Retrieved from email for Public Service by Pat Darnell
ARTICLE BY: Dr Al Sears, MD
Al Sears, MD
11903 Southern Blvd., Ste. 208
Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411
EXCERPT | " ... Radiation interferes with your body’s chemistry. Your cellular activity is disrupted by radioactivity of any particles you may absorb. It breaks chemical bonds between atoms and molecules that make up your DNA, tissues and organs.
Too much radiation makes it so that your body either can’t repair DNA damage, or your DNA makes mistakes during repair. This is when you get radiation-induced cancer.Radiation is now measured in sieverts. The standard measure is the milisievert (mSv). One mSv is the average accumulated background radiation dose to an individual for 1 year, not including radon, in the United States.
They still use that benchmark even though most Americans get around 3 mSv a year of background radiation.
A chest x-ray would give you about 0.06 mSv. A typical CT scan exposes you to about 2 mSv.
A worker at a nuclear plant receives 1.6 mSv per year.
A dose of 100 mSv a year is the lowest level at which any increase in cancer is evident.
A single dose of 1,000 mSv causes radiation sickness such as nausea and decreased white blood cell count, but not death.. For example, 5,000 mSv at once will kill about half the people within a month.
In Japan, ... radiation levels near damaged nuclear plant on Japan’s northeast coast reached as high as 400 mSv an hour.
In Tokyo, more than 100 miles away from the reactor, people will have their radiation exposure triple for the year to 4 mSv. This is not a deadly dose of radiation… but there is no threshold.
Any exposure above zero is assumed to give you a greater risk for radiation-induced cancer.
Recognize the symptoms of radiation poisoning:• Nausea and vomiting
• Bloody nose or mouth
• Bruising
• Dehydration
• Diarrhea
• Fainting
• Hair loss
• Ulcers, swelling or redness
• Weakness
Emergency care professionals will then give you one or more of these treatments:
• Potassium iodide. Your thyroid is where all the iodine in your body goes. If there’s radioactive iodine in the air, your thyroid will absorb it like any other iodine, and keep it there.
Potassium iodide is non-radioactive iodine, and taking it will fill your thyroid so it doesn’t absorb any radioactive iodine. The standard dose is a 130mg pill. Your body will then eliminate radioactive iodine through your urine. This prevents about 99% of damage you might otherwise get.
• Prussian blue. This type of dye binds to particles of radioactive cesium, the other element released into the air in Japan. You then eliminate radioactive particles in your stool. What doctors are trying to do with this treatment is speed up the elimination of the radioactive particles so they are not absorbed into your cells.
• Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA). This is probably not needed for an event like the one in Japan, but it would have been necessary after Chernobyl. DTPA binds to metals, including plutonium, americium and curium. You also eliminate this through your urine, speeding up the process and reducing the amount of radiation absorbed.
• GCSF – If your bone marrow has been affected and you may have trouble producing white blood cells, doctors may give you protein called granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. This helps your body make white blood cells which counter sickness and infection. The names of the drugs are Neupogen and Neulasta.
Here are four important things to remember if you are ever exposed to significant radiation:
1. Don’t apply ointments to radiation burns – These will hold in radioactive particles. Soap and water are best to remove them. Dress any burn and do not change the dressing frequently.
2. Leave irradiated area – Continued exposure is much more harmful that one-time exposure. Going indoors, or getting away from the irradiated area sounds simple, but it reduces exposure.
3. Take off and discard affected clothing – removing these eliminates about 90 percent of radioactive particles.
4. Radiation sickness is not contagious – once you are away from the radiation and the affected person is decontaminated, it is safe to care for them.
To learn more about Wellness Research and Consulting,
call (866) 792-1035 or visit: http://www.alsearsmd.com
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