Re: Re[2]: Airliner Dose Rates

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 17:28 12.05.98 -0500, you wrote:
>I thought dose rates at 10,000m above sea level were about 5 micro Sv/h...
>______________________________________________________________________

On my flight last week from Vienna to Stockholm (flight time about 2h
15min, cruising height 10 000 m) my dose(rate)meter showed a total dose of
4.6 microSv. This does not mean that the dose was actually 4.6 microSv,
because the dosemeter only counts radiation which causes ionisation in its
Geiger counter. No weighting factors for heavy nucleus or neutrons taken
into consideration. Therefore one should specify what is meant when talking
about doses in aircrafts. 

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
Department for Radiochemistry and Radioactivity of Food
Kinderspitalg. 15
A-1095 Vienna
AUSTRIA
tel.: +43-1-40491-520
fax.: +43-1-40491-540