1) Take the web quiz located at
https://www.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/
which tries to estimate your annual radiation dose. What is your annual dose? What is the largest single contributor to your dose?
2)Take your result from #1 and process it this way:
1. Divide the answer (in mrem) by 1000 to convert to units of rem
2. Divide by 2500 (which is the "cancer dose" in units of rem)
3. Reciprocate. That is, take 1/(Answer from #2). According to the Linear No-Threshold Model, your chances to get cancer due to the total amount of radiation you are exposed to in the last year would be this number.
Example: If your estimated annual dose is 319mrem, then:
1. 319mrem = 0.319rem
2. 0.319/2500 = 0.0001276 of a cancer dose
3. 1/0.0001276 = 7837
So that's a 1 in 7837 chance per year.
What is your chance of getting cancer from radiation this year?
3) Comment on what you learned from this activity. Are your sources of radiation dose what you expected? Is your chance to get cancer from radiation what you expected?