• Question: How much radiation can the human body handle before dying?

    Asked by krys112 to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 19 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Hi Krys,

      6 sieverts or more will cause death 😉

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Hi Krys

      As I said earlier, it depends on which kind of radiation. And there’s a difference of total radiation over your lifetime and a single exposure to huge doses.

      A very high dose of 100 gray to the entire body causes death within 24 to 48 hours; a whole-body dose of 2.5 to 5 gray may produce death within several weeks. At lower or more localized doses, the effect will not be death, but specific symptoms due to the loss of a large number of cells.

      In terms of long term exposure to radiation, it’s harder to know because it’s hard to measure the direct effects of the radiation…

      By the way, a gray is the international unit of absorbed radiation dose of ionizing radiation per one kilogram of matter.

      Hope that is clearer now! 😉

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      That’s a very good question and i have no idea! This might help though:

      http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100411155251AAdeOvm

      I think one of the major problems with radioactivity is that we can’t sense it so even if we’re only being exposed to small amounts of radioactivity if this builds up over time we can develop health problems. But just be glad we don’t live in some of the most radioactive places in the world like Chernobyl. It’s more than 20 years since the nuclear disaster and the town is still largely deserted.

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      6 sieverts is about the amount most people can take before death. But this is dependant on your health, build, exposure time and intensity of the exposure.

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 19 Jun 2010:

      It depends on the type of radiation (alpha, beta or gamma) and the health status, height and weight of the person. It’s gamma radiation that causes the most harm to people.
      Radiation is measured in Sieverts and apparently (I looked it up!) 6 sieverts of radiation will cause death…

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