Banana dose equivalents of radiation (Fukushima spiked at 30 bananas/day, now 2 bananas/day)

Next Big Future ^ | 3/14/11

[LibWhacker]

Watt's up with that - The average radiologic profile of bananas is 3520 picocuries per kg, or roughly 520 picocuries per 150g banana. The equivalent dose for 365 bananas (one per day for a year) is 3.6 millirems (36 μSv).

Another way to consider the concept is by comparing the risk from radiation-induced cancer to that from cancer from other sources. For instance, a radiation exposure of 10 mrems (10,000,000,000 picorems) increases your risk of death by about one in one million—the same risk as eating 40 tablespoons of peanut butter, or of smoking 1.4 cigarettes.

Japanese radiation readings:

Monitoring of radiation levels on the spot is ongoing. At point MP4, where a reading of 1,015μSv was detected yesterday, a radiation level of 44.6μSv was recorded at 00:30 this morning, and a level of 36.7μSv at 6:00am. After the start of venting around 9:20, a reading of 76.9μSv was recorded at 9:20 and of 70.3μSv at 9:30.

The radiation spiked up to 30 bananas a day (2 days ago) and then fell back down to 1 to 2 bananas per day.

UPDATE: Unit 2 has had serious damage and radiation levels on the edge of the plant compound briefly spiked at 8217 microsieverts per hour but later fell to about a third that. Normal annual doses for a year will occur in one day.

After the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the NRC detected radioactive iodine in local milk at levels of 20 picocuries/liter, a dose much less than one would receive from ingesting a single banana. Thus a 12 fl oz glass of the slightly radioactive milk would have about 1/75th BED (banana equivalent dose).

[KarlInOhio]

Potassium-40 is also the primary source of radioactivity in people. So avoid any dishes labeled Soylent Green or Donner Party surprise. Doubly so if served with bananas.

From http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/natural.htm

Human body

You are made up of chemicals, and it should be of no surprise that some of them are radionuclides, many of which you ingest daily in your water and food. Here are the estimated concentrations of radionuclides calculated for a 70,000 gram adult based ICRP 30 data:

Natural Radioactivity in your body

Nuclide	Total Mass of Nuclide Found in the Body	Total Activity of Nuclide Found in the Body	Daily Intake of Nuclides
Uranium	90 µg	30 pCi (1.1 Bq)	1.9 µg
Thorium	30 µg	3 pCi (0.11 Bq)	3 µg
Potassium 40	17 mg	120 nCi (4.4 kBq)	0.39 mg
Radium	31 pg	30 pCi (1.1 Bq)	2.3 pg
Carbon 14	22 ng	0.1 µCi (3.7 kBq)	1.8 ng
Tritium	0.06 pg	0.6 nCi (23 Bq)	0.003 pg
Polonium	0.2 pg	1 nCi (37 Bq)	~0.6 fg

[dila813]

---

Break for News More Important than the Nuke Plants in Japan

---

..ONE MILLION PEOPLE ARE STILL MISSING IN JAPAN..

..CRITICAL FACTORIES IN THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN ARE IDLE BUT LARGELY INTACT SHUTTING DOWN PRODUCTION IN ALL DOWNSTREAM FACTORIES (IPAD, CELL PHONES, COMPUTERS, ... ALL STOPPING)..

..FACTORY WORKERS ARE MISSING, TRAINING NEW WORKERS TAKES 6 MONTHS MIN UP TO 2 YEARS..
..NO POWER FOR FACTORIES..
..NO ROADS IN OR OUT OF FACTORIES..
..DUE TO GLOBAL MARKET, THIS CAN BE THE START OF ECONOMIC COLLAPSE..
..JAPANESE COMPANIES ARE NOTIFYING THEIR CUSTOMERS NOW, EXPECT SUPPLY DISRUPTIONS 6-8 MONTHS..

[dangerdoc]

Bananas have always been radio active. So is your fire detector, your basement and your body.

There is a natural background radiation level, bananas are a little higher than normal because of their potasium. You can sleep on them if you want, they present to danger.

Also keep in mind, when you hear something causes cancer, it may only represent a 1:1,000,000 risk. Considering that cancer as a whole is a 333,333:1,000,000 risk so adding that carcinogen will increase your odds of getting cancer by .0003%.

These numbers are thrown around to scare the public.

[w1andsodidwe]

Fourth choice used to be

4]Live near Ted Kennedy

But that is now out of the mix.

[refermech]

I think I’ll go home and make a banana, honey and peanut butter sandwich. Yummy!!!

[jazusamo]

That does it, I’m eliminating banana cream pie and going with pecan pie from now on.

I’m not afraid of the radiation but pecan pie tastes better and this is the excuse I’ll give to the wife.

[Palter]

You can never be too safe around Banana exposure.

[lakeman]

30 bananas!! Not even Charlie Sheen’s girlfriends can handle that!!!!!

[dila813]

That sounds great, people should be thankful they didn’t get hit by a 9 earthquake.

Looking at the pictures, the entire coast fell into the ocean leaving only the nuke plants standing. Amazing engineering to be the only thing in the area that could take both the quake and the tsunami

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“Whew, those banana pickers and tallymen are safe, since they don’t ingest bananas.”

Day-Glo. Day-ay-ay-Glo

[RoadGumby]

Bananas are high in Potassium. Potassium, naturally, has a percentage that is radioactive (K-41). Bananas are, always were and always will be, radioactive.

[Cyman]

Good ol’Harry was right. 30,000 lbs of bananas can be dangerous as heck.

[BwanaNdege]

Several days ago I posted a quote from CNN (yep, THAT CNN!) that they need to go easy on the “doom & gloom and heavy music”.

It looks like it’s time to bring back the heavy music!

I propose the first few bars of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. This Symphony was an ode to Beethoven’s favorite fruit and incorporated the name of the fruit in the symphony.

You know it, don’t you?

Ba-na-na-NAAA

Ba-na-na-NAAA

Ba-na-na-NAAAAA!

[FourPeas]

A friend often said he wished radioactivity could be colored pink so people could see it; then, hopefully, they wouldn’t freak out so easily about it.

[Oratam]

"I come in here for a good time and right away you start bustin' my bananas!"

[refermech]

What may be next is a economic tsunami. I hope not but things are getting ugly.

[lonevoice]

As the news about the battle at Fukushima continues, and is likely to do so for some time to come, I plan to revisit this thread from time to time for perspective.

(Scan down at least the first page of comments for additional information about the radioactivity of bananas)

[PA Engineer]

Looking at the pictures, the entire coast fell into the ocean leaving only the nuke plants standing. Amazing engineering to be the only thing in the area that could take both the quake and the tsunami

but but but...Shep Smith has been eatings bananas everyday and says this is like a gazillion Chernobyls and China Syndromes all at once. Who to believe!!!!!! [/s]

All your points on this thread seemed to have been washed away with the tsunami of anti-nuke propaganda.

[dila813]

It is the real story, this is the one that is going to affect us.

[kidd]

One excellent way of sequestering banana radiation is by putting sliced banana into a mixture of flour, sugar, water and oil and subjecting the blend to high heat for a short period of time. When made in large batches and put into kilogram-size wrapped parcels they can be shipped to many individuals for safe storage, reducing the risk of terrorist’s acquisition of large quantities of the resource.

Many studies have been done on this concept, and early studies resulted in the discovery of a replacement for expensive sandbags or concrete blocks for construction, affectionately called “fruitcake”. (unlike its impractical cousin “yellowcake”, “fruitcake” has an unlimited shelf life)

(From DJ at the link)