For more information on cosmic radiation, click here. The amount dose of radiation you get from air travel is low, but the dose depends on a few factors. The higher you are in altitude, the higher the dose of radiation.
This is a result of less shielding of cosmic radiation by the atmosphere at higher altitudes. The farther north or south you are from the Equator, the more radiation you will receive. Radiation from air travel is a result of naturally-occurring radiation from space we are exposed to every day.
If you want to know more about radiation exposure as a result of air travel, please click on the links below. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Radiation and Your Health. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Radiation from Air Travel. The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation , an online publication covering the latest research.
He would also have accumulated a radiation dose equivalent to about 1, chest x-rays. But what kind of health risk does all that radiation actually pose? The radiation doses to passengers from these security procedures are trivial. The major source of radiation exposure from air travel comes from the flight itself.
This is because at high altitude the air gets thinner. Thinner air thus means fewer molecules to deflect incoming cosmic rays — radiation from outer space. With less atmospheric shielding , there is more exposure to radiation. Consequently, they receive high radiation doses. In fact, it is the accumulation of radiation dose that is the limiting factor for the maximum length of manned space flights.
Too long in space and astronauts risk cataracts, cancer and potential heart ailments when they get back home. It depends entirely on how much time he has spent in the air. The radiation dose rate at typical commercial airline flight altitude 35, feet is about 0. By multiplying the dose rate by the hours of flight time, we can see that Stuker has earned himself about mSv of radiation dose, in addition to a lot of free airline tickets.
But what does that mean for his health? The primary health threat at this dose level is an increased risk of some type of cancer later in life. Studies of atomic bomb victims, nuclear workers and medical radiation patients have allowed scientists to estimate the cancer risk for any particular radiation dose. National and international dose limits for occupationally-exposed workers and members of the public are many times lower than these high levels.
In addition, the goal of radiation protection is to keep long-term environmental exposure, above normal background radiation, to a minimum. The dose that a member of the community living near ANSTO would receive from our operations is negligible. Those people living close to the bushland perimeter at Lucas Heights which extends 1. This is only 0. People living further away receive proportionately less. When trying to measure radiation there are two separate aspects to consider: radiation activity, and radiation exposure.
Activity refers to how much radiation in the form of particles or photons is being emitted by a source, while exposure measures the effects of that radiation on anything that absorbs it. Radiation activity is measured in an international unit called a Becquerel Bq , where 1 Bq corresponds to one particle or photon of radiation emitted per second.
The Sievert is quite a large unit for measuring radiation - a dose of 1 Sv in a short time will cause acute radiation sickness. Radiation is often measured as a dose over a specific period of time, known as the dose rate. The actual exposure received depends on both the dose rate and the exposure time. Radiographers, workers in the nuclear industry, and radiation workers in general wear a personal dosimeter to record their radiation doses.
These dose rates are selected to be well below harmful levels and can be considered safe limits for radiation dose. This is a dose that may result from the use of ionising radiation but does not include background radiation doses, or dosages you may receive from medical procedures. Radiation Radiation can be described as energy or particles from a source that travel through space or other mediums.
Frequently-asked questions What is the difference between radiation and radioactivity?
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