[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: Potassium Iodide



Richard,

Since the x-rays are delivered in milliseconds, I doubt your meter will be

able to respond fast enough to give any kind of valid response.

-- John



-----Original Message-----

From: Richard L. Hess [mailto:lists@richardhess.com]

Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 4:42 PM

To: Susan L Gawarecki; RADSAFE

Subject: Re: Potassium Iodide





At 11:39 AM 12/19/2002 -0500, Susan L Gawarecki wrote:

>As I recall, potassium chloride is used as an example of natural

>radioactivity because of the K-40.  I expect there would be a similar

>instrument response to KI.  So, will people take a radioactive pill to

>protect them from "deadly" radiation?  Publicize this fact just right,

>and you could crash the fear-based KI-pill market.



Dear Dr. Gawarecki,



I did a short-term count of a bottle of 200 65mg KI tablets through the 

poly?ethelene? bottle wall with the bottom of the bottle covering the 

pancake G-M tube (1-inch approx diameter mica window) and noticed POSSIBLY 

an increase in 3µR/h increase over background...but the other two 

background counts measured about 3-4µR/h lower than my long-term background 

average in this location. AND we're talking 14µR/h as my assumed background 

at home nestled into the decomposed granite hillside and about 10µR/h at my 

10th-floor office.



So what increase in radioactivity are you expecting from KI? I did not want 

to open the sealed bottle as it's damp here and I'd rather not do that. So 

if it's only alpha and beta, I suspect that the bottle may have shielded 

the meter.



And, in case you scoff at an Aware Electronics RM-70 as a totally useless 

toy (I know some on this list do not like Aware due to their marketing 

slant) please look at the specs--note I have the middle unit.



http://www.aw-el.com/specs.htm



Oh, and I've never felt better about radiation since I've been able to 

measure it. I'm going for a chest x-ray and intend to bring the 

monitor--and no, I'm not worried about the dosage from a chest x-ray, I 

just like to put things into perspective. It was scary last Monday when I 

had an x-ray (w/o monitor) and the technician could not tell me the dosage 

other than it was "low and safe" I told her I knew that, I wanted numbers.



Cheers,



Richard





************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/