9/13/2013 Dealing With Air Travel Radiation Exposure

Source: Care2.com
Date: 9/13/2013 9:30 am
by: Dr. Michael Greger

Doctors appear to be causing tens of thousands of cancers with CT scans and dentists may be causing a few brain tumors with dental X-rays (see my last two videos Cancer Risk from CT Scan Radiation and Do Dental X-Rays Cause Brain Tumors?), but what about these new-fangled airport full-body scanners that use so-called backscatter technology to reduce X-ray exposure? A thousand times less radiation exposure than a chest X-ray, though they’re still being phased out. In fact, flight passengers may get 100 times more radiation during the flight every hour, because they’re so high up in the atmosphere and exposed to more cosmic rays. Does that mean a round-trip cross-country flight is almost like getting a chest X-ray? Yes. Anyone who’s seen my speaking schedule knows I’m totally screwed. But what can you do? As is the answer to so many health questions, you can eat healthily.

5/31/2013 NASA Publishes Radiation Readings From Curiosity's Trip to Mars

Date: 5/31/2013
by: admin

Comparison of Some Radiation Exposures to Mars-Trip Level (credit NASA)

 A recent article published by NASA (5/30/2013) showed that Curiosity's RAD (radiation assessment detector) measured radiation on its trip to Mars to be 1.8 milliSieverts of GCR (galactic cosmic rays) per day while enclosed within the MSL (Mars Science Lab).  Converting to the commonly used  μSv/h scale (e.g. 1.8 * 1000/24) we get 75 μSv/h.  As an informal comparison I drilled down on the MEXT radiation station data from Fukushima prefecture in Japan to see what the highest reading was.  According to MEXT (Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology) data for their "Ottozawa three district meeting place" the reading as of 5/31/2013 CST was about 29.04 μSv/hr, or 407 times the normal background radiation level.

Reading from Ottozawa three distring meeting place, 5/31/2013 6:46 AM CST

Extrapolating then from our data (75/29.04 * 407) an astronaut riding within the MSL would receive an hourly radiation dose 1051 times higher than the level (according to MEXT of .037 μSv/hr) expected within Japan under normal conditions.

More comparisons can be garnered from the NASA article Data from NASA Rover's Voyage to Mars Aids Planning and also Wired Magazine's recent piece Radiation Risk for Mars Astronauts Will Be Dangerously High.

8/7/2012 Curiosity takes first cosmic ray sample of surface

Source: Space.com
Date: 8/7/2012

Video Description
100 years to the day (8/7/1912) after the discovery of galactic comic rays on Earth by Victor Hess, Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector took its first rad-readings on the surface of another planet.
Credit: Space.com

See also: On Its Centenary, Celebrating a Ride That Advanced Physics

9/27/2011 Space Radiation Expected to Rise for Airline Passengers and Astronauts

Source: Space.com
Date: 27 September 2011 Time: 01:24 PM ET
by: by Charles Q. Cho

SUN Whips Out Massive Flare CREDIT: NASA

Radiation hazards are likely to increase for air travelers and spacefarers in coming years due to changes in solar activity, researchers say.
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Read full article here