Environmental and Background Radiation

The following FAQs have been developed by our topic editors for this category:

			Is Anything We Use in Everyday Life Radioactive?
			Pregnancy and Flying
			Radiation Exposure During Commercial Airline Flights
			Solar Flares and Air Travel
			Space Flight and Radiation/Radiation on Other Planets
			What Are Some Sources of Radiation Exposure?

The following HPS Web pages also address this category:

			AARST Granite Position Statement_8_04_2008
			Radiation from granite countertops
			Uranium Primer

The following health physics questions have been answered by an expert and approved by our editors for inclusion in our "Ask the Experts" feature. Click on the question to see the answer.

Questions in this Category Are in the Following Subcategories:
•  Air
•  Building and Construction Material
•  Granite Countertops
•  General
•  Water
•  Geology
•  Antiques
•  Airplanes
•  Chemical Elements and Compounds
•  Cosmic Radiation
•  Food and the Human Body
•  Industry
•  Measurements and Reporting
•  Plants and Animals
•  Rocks, Minerals, and Mines
•  Software
•  Soil and Fallout
•  Space Flight
Air
Q3752	–	Radon daughter contamination
Building and Construction Material
Q25	–	Will phosphogypsum have an ill effect if used for plasterboard?
Q247	–	Radioactivity of fire brick
Q456	–	Natural radioactivity in plasterboard
Q629	–	Phosphogypsum
Q1852	–	Phosphogypsum in roadbeds
Q1880	–	Radiation from coal ash
Q1898	–	Radium deposits in a structure
Q3121	–	Fly ash
Q5231	–	Old hospital used for living space
Q5434	–	Radium equivalent activity
Q5868	–	Concrete for shielding
Q6058	–	Uranium in tiles
Q7834	–	Determining health hazards from granite countertops
Q7922	–	Use of naturally radioactive tiles for home flooring
Granite Countertops
Q3991	–	Dose from granite
Q6969	–	Health hazard from granite countertops
Q7746	–	Measurements: Using a GM detector for granite countertops
Q7855	–	Measurements: Interpreting GM detector results for granite countertops
Q8526	–	Devices for measuring radiation of granite and stones.
General
Q88	–	What is the rate of natural background radiation?
Q104	–	What doses are received in space?
Q178	–	What is the daily dose of natural background radiation?
Q689	–	Background levels for various states
Q824	–	Radiation in everyday life
Q909	–	Hunters Point Naval Shipyard
Q922	–	Correlation between background radiation and cancer
Q943	–	Adverse impacts due to natural radiation
Q979	–	Naturally occurring radioactive materials
Q1009	–	What is NORM?
Q1044	–	What are the levels of background radiation throughout the United States?
Q1640	–	Body exposure to background radiation
Q3509	–	Neutron background levels
Q5349	–	Radiation levels around the globe
Q5554	–	Fluctuations of background doses
Q5697	–	Background radiation in various countries
Water
Q184	–	Can bleeding ulcers be caused by 6.0 pCi/L radium-226?
Q258	–	When showering, is there a skin contamination problem from radioactivity ?
Q262	–	Sampling contaminated ground water
Q482	–	What is the MAC for potassium-40?
Q639	–	Radium in drinking water
Q724	–	Plutonium in water
Q729	–	Correlation between radon and radium in water
Q1143	–	Would blasting affect uranium in water?
Q1211	–	Radium in drinking water
Q1379	–	Uranium in drinking water
Q2377	–	Radium in city water
Q2816	–	Uranium-laden ion exchange resin
Q3383	–	Radium in Drinking Water
Q3399	–	Risk from Radium in Water
Q4140	–	Contamination in groundwater
Q4676	–	Groundwater-Storm-water levels
Q4860	–	Removal of radionuclides
Q5873	–	Uranium in drinking water
Q6525	–	Water flow causing radiation in building
Q8147	–	Radiuim in drinking water
Geology
Q2867	–	Center of the Earth
Q4734	–	Earthquakes and background radiation
Antiques
Q3579	–	Old vase
Q5207	–	Gas lantern mantle
Airplanes
Q133	–	Should I be concerned about aircraft gauges becoming radioactive?
Q444	–	What is my radiation exposure while flying?
Q789	–	In-flight radiation information
Q941	–	Risks of becoming an airline pilot
Q1161	–	Pilot flying polar routes
Q1524	–	Altitude effects
Q1764	–	Flying below 6,000 feet
Q1834	–	Flying and cancer
Q1930	–	Solar flares
Q1983	–	Lead blankets
Q2120	–	Is it safe to nurse?
Q2256	–	Fertility
Q2316	–	Ultraviolet exposure
Q2851	–	Flying limit for children
Q2909	–	Small Planes
Q3168	–	Flying after radiation treatment
Q4488	–	Newborn traveling
Q4918	–	Pilot wants to monitor exposures
Q5647	–	Measure flight radiation
Q6080	–	Radiation exposure to children flying
Q6801	–	Commercial airline exposure
Q6900	–	Flying in ninth week of pregnancy
Q7221	–	Solar storms/cosmic rays
Q8866	–	Risks from flying cargo in a jet
Chemical Elements and Compounds
Q179	–	I would like information on radium zinc sulfite.
Q661	–	Naturally occurring radioactive elements
Q681	–	Radioactivity of hafnium
Q933	–	Natural elements
Q1435	–	Is platinum radioactive?
Q1637	–	Old thorium nitrate
Q2494	–	Disposal/Treatment of NORM with Cerium Ammonium Nitrate and Cerium Chloride
Q2596	–	Thorium Nitrate as Chemical Reagent
Q7501	–	Use of samarium powder
Cosmic Radiation
Q1266	–	Solar flare radiation
Q1322	–	What is cosmic radiation?
Q7178	–	Variations in cosmic radiation
Q8406	–	Radiation protection in space
Food and the Human Body
Q187	–	Can you measure radioactivity in your body?
Q322	–	How much potassium-40 and carbon-14 are in the human body?
Q1147	–	Peanuts and radioactivity
Q1617	–	Radiation from humans
Q1946	–	Food with high radioactivity
Q3413	–	Strontium-90
Q4806	–	Psyllium fiber
Q5181	–	Table salt
Q5929	–	Stainless steel cookware
Q5944	–	Naturally radioactive foods
Q6254	–	Salt substitute and potassium-40
Industry
Q192	–	Is it safe to use a Class II safety cabinet to handle radioactive powders?
Q620	–	Cerium oxide
Q1348	–	NORM Scale Production
Q1835	–	NORM guidelines
Q2298	–	Release of radon from deep mines
Q3274	–	Definition of NORM
Q3470	–	Plutonium in Petroleum
Q3536	–	Relate µR/hr and pCi/g
Measurements and Reporting
Q210	–	How do I determine background radiation levels?
Q682	–	Environmental monitoring training
Q1063	–	Laser surgery while pregnant
Q1163	–	Reporting method
Q1471	–	Thorium calculations
Plants and Animals
Q36	–	What is the normal C-14 content for pine trees in California?
Q8533	–	Will gamma radiation affect crops?
Rocks, Minerals, and Mines
Q185	–	What are the risks of playing on an abandoned uranium mine?
Q343	–	Orphan Mine, Grand Canyon
Q573	–	Is Autunite dangerous?
Q1449	–	Autunite
Q1606	–	NORM limits
Q1825	–	Radioactive rock
Q1952	–	Fossils and uranium
Q2345	–	PPM in rocks
Q2842	–	Grand Canyon mine
Q3056	–	High-grade uranium ore
Q5650	–	Possession of thorium nitrate reagent
Q5847	–	Hazards of pitchblende
Q5970	–	Sniffed autunite sample
Q7943	–	Converting uranium rock dose rate to activity
Software
Q103	–	Where can I get a program called HotSpot?
Q329	–	I need a radioactive materials inventory program.
Q364	–	Modeling codes for airborne releases
Q373	–	Software packages for isotope tracking
Soil and Fallout
Q159	–	Is there data on the absorption and desorption rates for T20?
Q966	–	Fallout in Guam
Q985	–	Plutonium in soils in New Mexico
Q1030	–	Fallout in the Pacific
Q1757	–	Fallout studies
Q2304	–	Soil radioactivity research
Q4099	–	Measuring radiation levels in Belarus
Q5488	–	Background due to accidents and nuclear testing
Q5680	–	Background on Vypeen Island, India
Q6510	–	High radioactivity in Baku, Azerbaijan
Q8040	–	Fallout on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands
Q8457	–	Fallout in Southwestern United States
Space Flight
Q160	–	I would like information on radiation on other planets in our solar system.
Q396	–	Proton radiation in space
Q627	–	Doses to astronauts
Q753	–	Moon astronauts
Q791	–	Exposures to astronauts
Q1549	–	Radiation on the moon and Mars
Q2161	–	Space radiation effects
Q2821	–	Shielding on the moon
Q4856	–	Radiation shielding in space

The following Web sites may also be useful:

			Estimate Background Dose
			Estimate Flight Radiation (FAA)
			Florida Institute of Phosphate Research
			General Atomics
			NCRP Commentary No. 12
			NCRP Reports 132 and 137
			Radioactivity in Nature (Idaho State University)
			Radon (NRBP)
			Solar Effects and Space Weather (NOAA)
			Space Radiation Health Project - NASA, Johnson Space Center (Home)
			Technologically Enhanced Natural Radiation (EPA)
			World Health Organization Handbook on Indoor Radon