Qualifying a 1 Sv acute dose as "nasty but not lethal" could be a
hopefful understatement. At least one fatality is reported as a result
of an acute dose less than 5 Sv, according to Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert#Personal_dose_equivalent
Note that the same dose spread over more time will have lesser
short-term health effects, though long-term effects (e.g., cancer) might
remain nearly the same.
Also, there is some variation in individual responses to be expected.
Jim
On 2016-02-22 12:33, c...@traditio.com wrote:
I noticed that in last night's "Madame Secretary" on CBS, one of the few
good drama programs left, when the Secretary of State's husband suffers
radiation poisoning from an Islamic dirty bomb, the physician in charge
says that he has received "one Sievert" of radiation, which is described
as causing nasty, but not lethal, symptoms. Sievert is the SI unit of
radiation dose. Formerly, one commonly heard the obsolete units of
roetgen, rem, or rem.
This is yet another unacknowledged area in which metric units are being
used, and legacy units have been supplanted. --Martin Morrison
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