Food Irradiation.....Low Level????

["Gerry W. Kindred" <gwkindred@centerior.com>]

Regarding the AP News Release on Food Irradiation...

How can anyone refer to the levels of radiation requried to destroy
microorganisms as "low level"???
Pork is typically irradiated from a "low" of 0.3 kiloGray (30,000 rad) to a
"high" of 1.0 kiloGray (100,000 rad) to control trichinella spiralis.  I
would perfer replacing "low" and "high" with "minimum" and "maximum",
respectively.  Chicken is typically exposed to a dose of about 3 kiloGray
(300,000 rad).  Spices, seasonings, and some other substances are given a
dose of up to 30 kiloGray (3,000,000 rad).  Therefore, meat is typically
given a lower dose than other foodstuffs.  That does not infer that it is
exposed to low levels of radiation. 

Per 10CFR20, a high radiation area (without being technical or preachy) is
100 mrem/hr (0.1 mSv/hr).  I don't know the rate at which food irradiators
operate; however, since they are into production, I would guess the dose is
delivered over a very short duration (seconds? minutes?). We, being the
radiation protection community, can talk with each other and refer to
levels of dose as "relatively" lower or higher without giving it a second
thought.  But, the public, media,  
etc. are easily confused with our terminology.  Food irradiatiors do not
operate in the range of "low levels of radiation".  Just the extreme; a
posting to the entry of a food irradiation chamber (in the USA) would read
"GRAVE DANGER, VERY HIGH RADIATION AREA".  Grave is a key word, because if
you enter one of those chambers, with the source(s) exposed, an early grave
is where you would be headed.