☢Part One - Radioactivity in Food☢ and How to Use Your Geiger Counter

☢☢☢ PLEASE - READ - BELOW ☢☢☢

Detecting radioactive contamination in your food is VERY difficult without a scintillator, but it can be done. This four part series attempts to teach people a little about radiation, how to use a geiger counter, and how they might test their food.

First, a few simple things to know: Some foods are naturally a little radioactive, such as bananas, Brazil Nuts, and Potatoes. This is perfectly safe but you might accidentally detect this. Do not worry.

Secondly, large window or pancake tubes are much better than small window or no windowed geiger tubes at detecting contamination. This means an Inspector EXP (large pancake probe) can detect things in your food much better than a CD v-700 (metal shielded probe).

Thirdly, using common sense, reading labels, researching products and origins, and simple washing can do more good than using a Geiger counter to keep you safe.

Fourthly, your body has powerful repair mechanism and can handle some radiation, and is able to survive even some nasty exposures. You can be exposed to several hundred counts per minute when flying on an airplane! You breath in brick dust from your apartment (I do) which is radioactive and in your lungs. This is not great, but not automatically deadly.

About me:
I AM NOT A PHYSISIT OR A DOCTOR. If you have questions, ask me but feel free to tell me I am wrong and challenge me. Always consider the source of any information. It is your right and responsibility to be objective. I am a member of RadiationNetwork.com. I am an amateur scientist too!

Visit me at: Anti-Proton.com
Email me at: Tom@anti-proton.com

How radiation is detected:

When ever a wave or particle of radiation passes through my geiger counter, it generates a count. This count is heard as a tick (the famous Geiger Counter sound). Below are some conversions and figures to help you understand. Keep in mind that Geiger Counters cannot tell you what type of radiation (without careful study) or the energy. If you convert Counts Per Minute (above) into Micro Seiverts per hour, you are doing so for Cesium 137. My Geiger Counter was calibrated with Cesium 137, so 10 CPM would equate to 0.10 micro seiverts per hour if you were measuring Cesium 137. This is pretty close for most things. Feel free to ask me any questions.

My normal ranges are 7 CPM -- 28 CPM (14 normally).
I personally consider anything less than 100 CPM is quite safe. You must be the judge of what you consider to be safe.
100 CPM = 1 Micro Seivert of Exposre Per Hour (1 uSv/hr)

CPM = Counters Per Minute
uSv/hr = Micro Seiverts Per hour
mSv/hr = Mili Siverts Per hour
mR = miliroentgens per hour
mrem = miliREMs per hour

1 uSv/hr = CPM / 100 (For my Geiger Counter)

Example: 25 CPM = 25/100 = 0.25 uSv/hr

mR = mrem These two are the same for most applications. They are actually different, but they are interchangeable for my Gieger Tube.
Example: 23mR = 23mrem

1 Seivert / 1000 = 1 mSv
1 mSv / 1000 = 1 uSv
1 uSv / 1000 = 1 nSv

Category:

Education

Tags:

• radioactivity
• radioactive
• food
• contamination
• safe
• geiger
• counter
• detect
• measure
• uranium
• thorium
• decay
• iodine
• cesium
• strontium
• rem
• mrem
• rad
• uSv
• sievert
• mR
• /hr
• cpm
• counts
• japan
• meltdown
• probe
• 131
• 133
• 235
• 238
• k40
• potassium
• exposure
• dose
• CRM-100
• CRM100
• geigercounters.com
• radiationnetwork.com

[AluminumStudios]

I believe you are wrong about beta radiation. Beta radiation (electrons) come from neutrons decaying into protons. I believe one of the down quarks in the neutron changes to an up quark and emits a W boson which subsequently decays into an electron and a neutrino. THAT is the source of the electron. Beta doesn't come from the electron cloud.

[antiprotons]

@AluminumStudios Your are correct most events. Qantum change can be from uud to ddu, but also the inverse too. Beta emotion is not confined to merely isometric adjustment of nucleons. Electrons can be freed from shells and given relativistic energies. Cosmic rays causes particle showers all of the time which include these. Also, remember that positions are also beta as well as electron capture. I gave the simplest, but not the most common explanation. Thanks for the note

[antiprotons]

@AluminumStudios This leads me to the need to produce a short video detailing corrections. I might take the time to produce a video detailing each type in detail, as well as the many sources of each radiation. It sounds like you know what your talking about, so you know that each source of radiation can have many sources and configurations.

[sciroccoguy]

I'm pretty sure the electrons emitted via beta radiation do not slow down

[antiprotons]

@sciroccoguy That may be true, but consider this: An electron has mass and velocity, therefore it has momentum... Correct? (p=mv) It is affected by various feilds it encounters and there is change to it's momentum. In reality, they are loosing their kenetic energy as they bend their trajectories... This is analogous to "slowing down" insomuch as anything can be at the point where the line between a wave and a particle becomes fuzzy. Good point though

[MegaMaxemus]

Nice amethyst geode.

[antiprotons]

@MegaMaxemus Thanks! I bought it at a silent auction I attended in Fredericksburg Virginia. It only cost me 60 dollars. Wha a steal!

[GoddardsJournal]

This video has a high-dose rate of knowledge!

[sciroccoguy]

@antiprotons then why do electrons not slow down when contained in an atom? It is believed that electrons are not affected by friction and behave as waves in many respects.

[FatimaSole]

@antiprotons looking forward to it!!! your videos are really helpful! Cheers!!