[ RadSafe ] definition of Rad

[edmond0033]

Dear Colleagues:

According to to the RADIATION HEALTH HANDBOOK, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 
EDUCATION, Public Health Service (Revised Edition: January 1970) the Rad is 
"The unit of absorbed dose equal to 0.01 Joule/kg in any medium."  The 
Absorbed Dose is  "The energy imparted to matter by ionzing radiation per 
unit mass of irradiated materialat the place of interest.  The unit of 
absorbed dose is the rad.  One rad equals 100 ergs/g."  Maybe the archives 
of the Health Physics Society has some information on the Unit as defined 
from 1918 to 1953.  Remember at one time dose was measured by the browing of 
the back of the hand..

Ed Baratta

edmond0033 at comcast.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kai Kaletsch" <eic at shaw.ca>
To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 12:10 PM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] definition of Rad


Friends,

According to the Wikipedia entry for 'Rad', it was defined from 1918 to 1953 
as the unit of X-ray dose required to kill a mouse. 1) I never heard this 
definition before and 2) This seems like a very low dose for killing 
anything.

This is somewhat before my time and I normally use SI units. Is the 
Wikipedia statement correct?

Kai

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