Reply #113: ok, let's compare doses directly [View All]

[treepig]

form the citation in post #111, we see clinical treatment of cells is 2000/Gy/cell. the unit of measurement here is the 'Gy' which has units of Joules/kg (Gy is a measure of absorbed radiation). therefore to compare with our example, specifically the DU-exposed cell, we have to convert 190,000 eV to the Joule equivalent, and determine the mass of a cell.

first, the eV to Joule conversion:

190,000 eV x 1.60 x 10e-21 = 3.04 x 10e-14 Joules (that's how much energy the DU - exposed cell is subject to on a daily basis).

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictE.html

now, determining the mass of a cell:

a typical cell is ~15 microns in diameter, and therefore has a volume (assuming spherical dimensions, such as a leukocyte would have) of ~27.6 x 10e-15 liters. cells are slightly denser than water, so the mass of the cell would be ~40 x 10e-15 kg.

now putting the two together, (3.04 x 10e-14 Joules)/(40 x 10e-15 kg) = 0.76 Gy.

bottom line:

clinical dose of radiation: 2000 Gy
radiation from DU dust: 0.76 Gy (note - that's only if all radiation is concentrated to one cell, if there were (let's say) seven surrounding cells, the dose would be 0.1 Gy or 20,000 times less than used medically). i too am eagerly waiting for those epidemiological studies.