Today I learned about a unit of radiation exposure called the BED. This is a unit of measurement based on the radiation exposure from…
See, bananas contain a lot of potassium, which contains 0.01% potassium-40, which is radioactive. The upshot is that the radiation exposure from eating a banana is 1 BED (banana equivalent dose), or roughly equivalent to 0.01 millirem (mrem). Of course, you’d never be able to eat enough bananas to be dangerous since your body would just excrete the excess potassium.
Yes, you read that right. Living near a coal plant exposes you to three times the radiation of a nuclear plant. This is due to the presence of thorium and uranium in coal. But these levels are still ridiculously low.
2 mrem is also roughly your exposure from a NY to LA flight, due to your increased altitude (less atmosphere shielding you from the effects of galactic cosmic rays).