Re: Smoking Dose?

[John Goldsmith <gjohn@bgumail.bgu.ac.il>]

The best established and probably most relevant body burden from smoking 
is due to carbon monoxide rather than to radiation which I believe is 
quite variable, compared to CO.  The average pack a day smoker will
have 5-8% of the circulating hemoglobin inactivated by CO , and due to
the shift in dissociation curve, the impact on oxygen transport by 
hemoglobin will be greater than 10% in many such smokers. RAdiation is
not the only risk from smoking !   gjohn@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
        John Goldsmith, Ben Gurion University of he Negev, Beersheva IL
                  

On Fri, 3 May 1996, Kara Villamil wrote:

> 
> Thanks to all who responded to my request for opinions on a proposed
> radiation-related exhibit for our science museum here at Brookhaven Lab.
> Your comments were all useful, and by combining them with the knowledge of
> HPs here at BNL, I think we'll have a good exhibit. We're going to do BOTH
> a "match the dose with the source" board with common manmade and natural
> exposures, to test people's perception and knowledge of doses, AND a
> hands-on Geiger counter demo of Fiesta ware, etc. with a real live HP.
> 
> But I have one other question, which my sources here have suggested I post
> on RADSAFE:
> 
> What is the average pack-a-day smoker's WHOLE BODY ANNUAL DOSE? The latest
> edition of Los Alamos Science (annual report) has a "Personal Radiation
> Dose Chart" on page 48 that lists a mrem number of 870 for a pack-a-day
> smoker, but has the caveat "(high degree of uncertainty)".
> 
> Can I use that number in my museum display to scare the bejeebers out of
> our visitors? Or is there a more conservative number to use?
> 
> Thanks for your help, past present and future!
> 
> --Kara Villamil
> Brookhaven National Laboratory Public Affairs Office
> karav@bnl.gov
> 
> 
>