Some examples of radiation doses |
Updated
23/04/2009 |
1000 mSv | The dose which may cause symptoms of a radiation sickness (e.g. tiredness and nausea) if received within 24 hours | 100 mSv | The highest permitted dose for a radiation worker over a period of five years | 4 mSv | The average annual radiation dose for Finns caused by indoor radon, X-ray examinations, etc | 2 mSv | The annual dose of cosmic radiation received by a person working in an aeroplane | 0,1 mSv | The radiation dose received by a patient having his/her lungs X-rayed | 0,01 mSv | The radiation dose received by a patient having his/her teeth X-rayed |
Some examples of external dose rates30 µSv/h | The dose rate measured at a distance of one metre of a patient that has undergone isotope treatment. When the dose rate is less than 30 µSv/h, the patient can be discharged. | 5 µSv/h | The highest dose rate measured in Finland during the Chernobyl accident | 5 µSv/h | The dose rate in an aeroplane flying at an altitude of 12 kilometres | 0,4 µSv/h | If this dose rate limit is exceeded, the automatic radiation meter of the Finnish radiation monitoring network triggers an alarm. | 0,04-0,30 µSv/h | Natural background radiation in Finland |
The radiation dose describes the health hazard caused by radiation. Its unit is sievert (Sv). The dose is often given in thousandths of sieverts, i.e. millisieverts (mSv) or in millionths, i.e. microsieverts (µSv). The dose rate indicates the amount of radioactive dose received by a person within a certain period of time. The unit of the dose rate is sieverts per hour (Sv/h). |
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