Dangerous Radiation over the US

Just found this video thought i'd post it for all you high flyers out there.

VERY Dangerous radiation levels recorded at 38,000 ft, US night flight/ May 30,2012. I was angered to find out that both the government and the airlines know about these dangerous levels, and the pilots and crew are not being warned, or the passengers -I was not warned before flying. Everyone on board was stuck in that radiation level for 4 hours. The Geiger counter went into the dangerous red zone at just 16,000ft and kept climbing all the way to 38,000ft. Max reading was over 3,80 mcSv/h ! When warned, the airline refused to drop altitude, due to fuel consumption.

Exposure comparison: "Japan's Asahi Shimbum newspaper reported early Saturday that radiation levels per hour in the area near the front entrance of the No. 1 Fukushima plant reached 0.59 micro Sievert, which is eight times the normal levels.. according to calculations by msnbc.com." We were exposed to 3.8 micro Sieverts -51 times the normal level.

All radiation is damaging. It's cumulative -- each dose you get adds to your risk of getting cancer. -Dr. Helen Caldicott, one of the world's leading nuclear experts

It is well known that the background radiation at that altitude is about ~5-10 μSv h-1, so the recorded is actually less than that, if we want to be picky. However, the magnitude of the radiation seems about right.

What are you getting at with this, exactly?

reply to post by Consequence

3,600 μSv (μSv means microSieverts) is the Average radiation a US citizen receives in a YEAR from all sources, including medical. Everyone on board that flight received that radiation dose, per hr, for 4 Hours.

This gives me an uneasy feeling for sure. It's quite obvious the radiation from fukushima has to go somewhere!

Oh.. sorry about two posts in a row, but I forgot to comment on the "51 times more than normal" comment on the Fukushima incident:

As we know, the background radiation is harmless, and it just happened that the radiation at Fukushima was 51 times greater than the expected background radiation at sea level.
Please understand that if something harmless gets multiplied by 51, it does not mean that it by default gets dangerous, regardless if the "something" is radiation or gummy-bears. In this case (Fukushima), we happened to get up to a magnitude that we experience when we are flying.
The media tried to make the "51 times" scary at Fukushima, and now you are trying to make sitting in an airplane dangerous because it would be like sitting in the middle of a melt-down.
This is a fine example of one piece of misinformed news (from Fukushima) being used in another topic (flying) and now both of these things appear worse than they are.

Don't get me wrong, Fukushima lost usable land due to contamined grounds, but that's not the topic. The topic is the level of radiation in this report.

Originally posted by Tylerknight
This gives me an uneasy feeling for sure. It's quite obvious the radiation from fukushima has to go somewhere!

The radiation exposure at high altitudes is due to cosmic rays, not Fukushima.

Radiation is everywhere around you every day, it is how much and what kind that is a cause for concern.

Unless you live in north-western Japan, you get a bigger dose sitting on a porcelain toilet, eating a banana or changing your cat litter than you will from the Fukushima accident.

Originally posted by majestic3
reply to post by Consequence

 

3,600 μSv (μSv means microSieverts) is the Average radiation a US citizen receives in a YEAR from all sources, including medical. Everyone on board that flight received that radiation dose, per hr, for 4 Hours.

Yes?
And don't say "that flight", because it applies all flights.
What makes you think that it is problematic for a human being to receive more radiation than the average US citizen?

And still, this is not news. Conspiracy even less.

This kind of reminds me of that lady that was blaming HARP for the rainbow in her sprinklers.

reply to post by majestic3


Youll be fine, could be an issue for the flight crew though.

Stupid Question Alert....

For all the hours on Fuku I've spent..You'd think I'd know this perfectly but this is the area I'm confused by to this very day. Help??


The gizmo says mSv. The chart Benryl gives us is mSv in the lower right. If this is 3.44 mSv, the chart seems to sho w that 3 POINT 44 mSv is so low as to be laughable in calling dangerous. It seems to say 75 mSv is the threshold to start worrying.

At the same time...the Gizmo itself is screaming about dangerous levels..not the guy holding it. So, the hard coding says it's above a level the chart isn't supporting....unless that isn't a period and it's a Comma. It looks like a comma to me on the digital, which would seem to take it to a whole different world of readings?

I honestly do NOT know and my brain just hiccups on the Rad reading scales and actual meaning. Any clarity here which explains the apparently contradiction between posts, that chart and the warnings the gizmo seems to feel are real important to convey??

I didn't care to correct the OP.
It says 3.22 or so micro sievert. It's absolutely nothing, but still 50 times greater than on sea-level.

So yes, the device accurately warns that the BACKGROUND radiation is not normal.
If I had that device on the ground and the radiation jumped to 50 times normal, then obviously I'm surrounded by radiating material, i.e. something's very wrong and it would be a bad idea to continue in that direction without reason.

But hey, it makes for a cool video.

There was a thread a couple days ago about the UV ray index being at dangerous levels UV MAP HERE

I wonder if the sun's radiation is getting through our atmosphere due to ozone holes OZONE MAP

I also very much worry about radiation from Fukushima. I believe we are in danger continuously and will only get worse.

Originally posted by tinker9917


I wonder if the sun's radiation is getting through our atmosphere due to ozone holes OZONE MAP

You wonder? The public has been aware of this fact for several decades now...?
Furthermore, the sun's radiation is getting through our atmosphere even without the ozone holes, obviously. The holes just makes us more vulnerable to the sun.

I also very much worry about radiation from Fukushima.

You worry very much for nothing.

I believe we are in danger continuously and will only get worse.

And why do you believe we are in danger? Based on what?