Posted By STEVE HI CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH THIS,I M LOOKING FOR SIMPLE INFO ON THIS SUBJECT. 1= HOW MANY MILLISIVERTS ARE THERE IN A SIEVERT? 2=HOW MANY M/SIEVERTS DO WE ABSORB A YEAR FROM RADON 3=HOW MANY M/SIEVERTS IN A BEQUEREL 4=TO WHAT DOSE LEVEL DO YOUR WORKERS HAVE TO BE IN TO WARRANT A RADIATION PASS BOOK DOES ANYBODY KNOW OF A WEB-SITE THAT CAN GIVE ME A UNDERSTANDING OF IONISING RADIATION IN SIMPLE TERMS AND DEFINITIONS STEVE

Posted By Jane Blunt Dear Steve The previous respondent was quite right, there is no easy way of equating Becquerel with Sievert, because the different types of radiation (alpha, beta, gamma, X-ray and neutron are the commonest) have different abilities to do damage. You also have to take into account the distance from the source, since radiation falls away as the inverse square of the distance. As for pass books, these are used principally by 'classified workers', when they are working in the 'controlled area' of another employer. These workers would normally wear a radiation badge (but not all those wearing a badge are 'classified workers'). The terms in inverted commas have a particular meaning in law, and they are defined in the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. The Guidance document is 'Working with Ionising Radiation' L 121 ISBN 0 7176 1746 7. If you have classified workers you should have a Radiation Protection Supervisor, who should be able to tell you more about the radiation work at your premises. The National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) has a good website, and they also have some very good public information leaflets on radiation of all types. Their web address is nrpb.org.uk. Regards Jane