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To: Physicist
Ping. Let us know how much (or how little) danger this stuff is.
10 posted on 10/31/2001 8:33:53 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: Poohbah
Ping. Let us know how much (or how little) danger this stuff is.

OK. Let's start with the 40 mCi of Americium-241. The dose conversion factor, if you inhale it, is 1.2x10-4Sievert/Bequerel, which is 44.4 rem/mCi. The total dose equivalent, if you inhaled the lot of 40 mCi, is 1776 rem, which is enough to kill you pretty quickly. Anything beyond 600 rem is considered to be guaranteed fatal after 60 days. We are not, however, talking about a huge public health threat. You could poison a few people with it if you didn't dilute it too much and could deliver most of it into their lungs. (Sorry, I couldn't find the ingested dose conversion factors.)

The inhaled dose conversion factor for Cesium-137 is 8.6x10-9 Sv/Bq, which is 3.182x10-3 rem/mCi. The total dose equivalent for 8 mCi is 25 mrem, or about what you typically get in a year's time from cosmic rays.

31 posted on 10/31/2001 9:44:47 AM PST by Physicist
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