The average person receives about 300 millirem of naturally occuring radiation a year.
Quote:
Although radiation may cause cancers at high doses and high dose rates, currently there are no data to establish unequivocally the occurrence of cancer following exposure to low doses and dose rates – below about 10,000 mrem (100 mSv). Those people living in areas having high levels of background radiation – above 1,000 mrem (10 mSv) per year – such as Denver, Colorado, have shown no adverse biological effects.
|
That's not to say I wouldn't mind an extra dose of radiation, but all this fear associated with hearing the word "radiation" is over exagerrated by the media. Public fear drives viewership and the newsmedia feeds on this stuff. There are far worst things to worry about. Its kind of funny how people make a big deal out of this, yet hardly take a second thought about the carcinogens spewing out of the exhaust.
A short list of the likely pathogens in car exhaust:
Carbon Monoxide
Nitrogen dioxide
Sulphur dioxide
Benzene
Formaldehyde
Polycyclic hydrocarbons