Bananas Are Radioactive... So I Ate One
Dr. Pippa eats a radioactive banana, explains potassium-40 and the Banana Equivalent Dose, and compares a banana with X-rays, flights and your own body.
In This Episode
The Numbers Behind the Episode
- One banana: the EPA puts it at 0.01 millirem, or 0.1 microsieverts. One glossary calls the banana equivalent dose a "mock unit," because it is a calculated yardstick and not a detector reading.
- On paper: by that yardstick, a coast-to-coast US flight is about 350 bananas and a typical chest x-ray about 1,000. Those conversions are our own arithmetic from published figures.
- The catch: your body keeps potassium under tight control and removes the excess. Oak Ridge Associated Universities concludes that eating foods like bananas does not raise your annual radiation dose.
This is an explanation of a unit, not radiation safety or health advice. The full article has the table, the limits of the comparison and every reference. You can also try the Banana Dose Calculator.