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RE: Does Size Matter?
Ok, I'm gonna try to respond to this and two of the responses thus far.
First off, the idea of absorbed dose is to allow you to compare the dose in
an apple vs the dose in an orange, is it not? This way you can compare
doses in various objects of differing densities, shapes, etc. and still
have a frame of reference. So for some given field of radiation, the
larger person will have, if you will, greater stopping power due to greater
mass. The only way I see a potential increase in dose would be for gammas
and higher energy EM radiation. Assuming an external exposure, alphas are
stopped in the skin anyway, natural or nuke blast betas (not particle
accelerators) don't go very deep and effectively all the energy is lost in
the target less backscatter. That leaves x- gamma- and cosmic rays. If
they're wizzing right through you, there is an increase in the probability
of an interaction due to the increased target "thickness," but for people
(density ~1) I'd figure this to be lost in the noise anyway. Just my $0.02
Now to the other responses:
At 07:54 10/28/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I'm not sure that obese people have more cells than skinny people - just
>bigger cells (at least, that is probably true for the fat cells).
>Sara
Sara,
Unless you're joking, which I almost think you are, obese people most
assuredly have more cells than skinny people. Each pound of fat has to be
grown, cell by cell, with the excess of materials consumed by the person.
I have considerable experience from watching someone grow fat cells via
excess consumption for no real reason. As for size, I can't quite remember
my biology class of years past, but cells come in a bunch of different odd
shapes depending on function (brain, nerve, bone, muscle, fat, etc.) so
size is kind of relative here. Maybe a Medsafer could chime in please?
I'd actually like to know.
>I know one case where size does matter. It's when you get to use another
individual as shielding...
>Jim
Jim, dude, like, you really have to stop eating those Baker's unsweetened
chocolate bars. So, how's things down there at Marshal?
***WARNING*** For the humor impaired, the above response constitutes a
friendly joke. We now return you to your regularly unscheduled post.
I guess that's all I have to say on that. Martin, any refutations for or
logical holes in what I said?
Scott Kniffin
RSO Unisys Federal Systems, Lanham, MD
CHO Radiation Effects Facility, GSFC, NASA
mailto:Scott.D.Kniffin.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
The opinions expressed here are my own. They do not necessarily represent
the views of Unisys or NASA. This material has not been reviewed by my
manager or NASA.
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