Banana-stasis

["GARY MANSFIELD" <GARY.MANSFIELD.HC#u#HS#u#DIV@quickmail.llnl.gov>]

                                        - Captain Internal Dosimetry!

                                      Banana-stasis

Reply to Paul Frame re homeostasis of potassium:

I'm sure that potassium (and therefore potassium-40) is under tight
homeostasis - but as you stated, the body continually turns over potassium and
has to get some somewhere - so ANYTHING you eat with potassium in it is going
to contribute to the natural (and therefore "good") background radiation dose.
 I am sure that the dose conversion factor listed in FGR #11 takes this
natural turnover of potassium into account (it would dictate the biological
clearance rate constant.)  So I still think it's a valid comparison.

The point is that just because you can calculate a radiation dose associated
with something, doesn't mean that you are going to die from it.  (Unless, of
course, you have a banana and peanut butter sandwich, in which case there is a
synergistic effect between the K-40 and the aflatoxins in the peanut butter .
. . But, that's another story.)

re: Brazil nuts.  Reminds me of the line from the play "Charlie's Aunt":

"I'm from Brazil! . . .

That's where the nuts come from!"

Gary Mansfield