[ RadSafe ] Radium dose to Eben Byers

[Clayton]

Your question is ambiguous as to the partition of Ra 226 and Ra 228.  Was it half and half by activity or half and half by weight?  The number of Bq per gram of 226 is 300 times that of 228, but the dose rate per Bq from 228 is 660 times that of 226.  It makes a big difference to the answer. 


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Could anyone please help me with the conversion of Bequerels to Sieverts?  I don?t feel safe to do it. As a journalist I am writing about the late Eben Byers who died in 1932 after swallowing - as he said 1400 bottles of Radithor of which each bottle contained 74 kBq (half radium 226 and radium 228). He swallowed it during 3 years, and then lived/suffered for 2 years until his death. 30 years after his death Robley Evans analysed his remains and concluded that Byers bones contained 225 kBq. Expected was about a 100 so Byers may have underreported his consumption. That being what it is I would like someone  someone to calculate from this 225kBq Byers lifetime dosis in Sieverts. I am  building a website  (popular, in Dutch) with the aim to fight  radiofobia and that requires imho t'hat I keep the usage of units limited and as uniform as possible. Anyone?



Clayton Bradt