"mRem or mrem" the standard solution...

[Mike Grissom <mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

Radsafers,

Just as a point of reference, ICRU Report 33, "Radiation
Quantities and Units", notes that for dose equivalent
you may temporarily use the special unit "rem" with lower
case "r". Roentgen isn't a recognized SI concept, that is
the special unit for exposure, but it is interesting to
note on page 19, footnote 14, roentgen is NOT capitalized
either. However, in Table 2, on page 16, "R" IS capitalized.

Hence, it would be "mrem" for the dose equivalent
special unit and "mR" for the exposure special unit in
abbreviated forms.

Also, the definition of rem differs throughout the
literature: "radiation equivalent man", "radiation
equivalent man or mammal", "roentgen equivalent man",
and just plain "rem" amongst others!

So, use sievert (Sv), gray (Gy), and becquerel (Bq)
for your special units (notice ICRU 33 didn't capitalize
the full special unit either, just the abbreviations!)
and have comfort in knowing they are named after
individuals and not ill-defined acronyms (of course,
that didn't work entirely well for Roentgen...).

Ciao,

MikeG.


************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html