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Banana equivalent dose

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A banana contains naturally occurring radioactive potassium.

A banana equivalent dose (abbreviated BED) is a nonstandard unit of radiation exposure, defined as the additional dose a person will absorb from eating one banana.

The concept is based on the fact that bananas, like most organic material, naturally contain a certain amount of radioactive isotopes—even in the absence of any contamination due to human nuclear endeavors. The banana equivalent dose was meant to express the severity of exposure to radiation, such as resulting from nuclear power, nuclear weapons or medical procedures, in terms that would make sense to most people.

History

The concept probably originated on the RadSafe nuclear safety mailing list in 1995, where a value of 9.82×10−8 sieverts or about 0.1 μSv was suggested.[1]

Relationship with standard units

The BED is supposed to be a radiation dose equivalent unit; that is, a unit for measuring potentially damaging radiation absorbed by body tissue, rather than the total radiation (of any kind) emitted by a source or absorbed by matter. The corresponding SI unit is the sievert (Sv), defined as a radiation dose biologically equivalent to one joule of absorbed gamma-ray energy per kilogram of tissue. In the U.S, an older unit, the roentgen equivalent man (rem), equal to 0.01 sieverts, is sometimes used.

The major natural source of radioactivity in plant tissue is potassium, which in nature contains 0.0117% of the unstable isotope potassium-40 (40K). This isotope decays with a half-life of about 1.25 billion years (4×1016 seconds), and therefore the activity of natural potassium is about 31 Bq/g – meaning that, in one gram of the element, about 31 atoms will decay per second.[2][3] Plants naturally contain other radioactive isotopes, such as carbon-14 (14C), but their contribution to the total activity is much smaller.[citation needed] Since a typical banana contains about half a gram of potassium,[4] it will have an activity of roughly 15 Bq.[5] Although the amount in a single banana is small in environmental and medical terms, the radioactivity from a truckload of bananas is capable of causing a false alarm when passed through a Radiation Portal Monitor used to detect possible smuggling of nuclear material at U.S. ports.[6]

The absorbed radiation dose depends on the type and energy of the emitted particles, as well as on the location of the source in the body (external, inhaled, ingested, etc.). According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the conversion factor (CEDE) is 5.02 nanosieverts over 50 years for each becquerel of isotopically pure potassium-40 ingested by an average adult.[7] Using this factor, one banana equivalent dose comes out as about 5.02 nSv/Bq × 31 Bq/g × 0.5 g ≈ 78 nanosieverts = 0.078 μSv. In informal publications one often sees this estimate rounded up to 0.1 μSv.[8]

Criticism

The validity of the banana equivalent dose concept has been challenged. Critics, including the EPA,[9] pointed out that the amount of potassium (and therefore of 40K) in the human body is fairly constant because of homeostasis,[10] so that any excess absorbed from food is quickly compensated by the elimination of an equal amount.[1][11]

It follows that the additional radiation exposure due to eating a banana lasts only for a few hours after ingestion, namely the time it takes for the normal potassium contents of the body to be restored by the kidneys. The EPA conversion factor, on the other hand, is based on the mean time needed for the isotopic mix of potassium isotopes in the body to return to the natural ratio, after being disturbed by the ingestion of pure 40K; which was assumed by EPA to be 30 days.[9] If the assumed time of residence in the body is reduced by a factor of ten, for example, the estimated equivalent absorbed dose due to the banana will be reduced in the same proportion.

These amounts may be compared to the exposure due to the normal potassium content of the human body, 2.5 g per kg,[12] or 175 grams in a 70 kg adult. This potassium will naturally generate 175 g × 31 Bq/g ≈ 5400 Bq of radioactive decays, constantly through the person's adult lifetime.

Radiation from other foods

Besides bananas, other foods that are rich in potassium (and therefore in 40K) are potatoes, kidney beans, sunflower seeds, and nuts.[13][14] Brazil nuts are rich in 40K but also radium, and may have up to 444 Bq/kg (12 nCi/kg) – five times the radioactivity of bananas.[15][16]

By the same reasoning originally used to arrive at the banana equivalent dose, one may conclude that all the food consumed in one year results in a total exposure of about 0.4 mSv (40 mrem),[original research?] which is more than 10% of the total dose absorbed from all natural and man-made sources in that same period.[17] However, the same criticisms raised against the BED may apply to this estimate as well.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b RadSafe mailing list: original posting and follow up thread. FGR11 discussed.
  2. ^ The activity of one gram of natural potassium is the number of atoms of 40K in it, divided by the average lifetime of a 40K atom in seconds. The number of atoms of 40K in one gram of natural potasium is 0.000117 times Avogadro's number 6.022×1023 (the number of atoms per mole) divided by the atomic weight of potassium-40 (39.96 grams per mole), namely about 1.76×1018 per gram. As in any exponential decay, the average lifetime is the half-life divided by the natural logarithm of 2, or about 56.82×1015 seconds.
  3. ^ Supian Bin Samat et al (1997), activity of one gram of potassium, Phys. Med. Biol. volume 42 page 407, doi:10.1088/0031-9155/42/2/012
  4. ^ "Bananas & Potassium". Retrieved 2011-07-28. ...the average banana contains about 422 mg of potassium...
  5. ^ Tom Watson (Feb 26, 2012). "Radioactive Banana! Peeling Away the Mystery". (Accessed 14 March 2012).
  6. ^ Issue Brief: Radiological and Nuclear Detection Devices. Nti.org. Retrieved on 2010-10-19.
  7. ^ Federal Guidance Report #11 (table 2.2, page 156) Lists conversion factor of 5.02×10-9 Sv/Bq for committed effective dose equivalent of ingested pure potassium-40 (not of natural potassium).
  8. ^ Radiation chart
  9. ^ a b U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (1999), Federal Guidance Report 13, page 16: "For example, the ingestion coefficient risk for 40K would not be appropriate for an application to ingestion of 40K in conjunction with an elevated intake of natural potassiumm. This is because the biokinetic model for potassium used in this document represents the relatively slow removal of potassium (biological half-time 30 days) that is estimated to occur for typical intakes of potassium, whereas an elevated intake of potassium would result in excretion of a nearly equal mass of natural potassium, and hence of 40K, over a short period."
  10. ^ Eisenbud, Merril; Gesell, Thomas F. (1997). Environmental radioactivity: from natural, industrial, and military sources. Academic Press. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0-12-235154-9. It is important to recognize that the potassium content of the body is under strict homeostatic control and is not influenced by variations in environmental levels. For this reason, the dose from 40K in the body is constant.
  11. ^ Maggie Koerth-Baker (Aug 27, 2010). "Bananas are radioactive—But they aren't a good way to explain radiation exposure". (Accessed 25 May 2011). Attributes the title statement to Geoff Meggitt, former UK Atomic Energy Authority.
  12. ^ Thomas J. Glover, comp., Pocket Ref, 3rd ed. (Littleton: Sequoia, 2003), p. 324 (LCCN 2002-91021), which in turn cites Geigy Scientific Tables, Ciba-Geigy Limited, Basel, Switzerland, 1984.
  13. ^ Environmental and Background Radiation, Health Physics Society.
  14. ^ Internal Exposure from Radioactivity in Food and Beverages, U.S. Department of Energy (archived from the original on 2007-05-27).
  15. ^ Brazil Nuts. Orau.org. Retrieved on 2010-10-19.
  16. ^ Natural Radioactivity. Physics.isu.edu. Retrieved on 2010-10-19.
  17. ^ Radiation. Risks and Realities,[dead link] US Environmental Protection Agency
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