Banana equivalent dose

banana

Banana
The banana equivalent dose (BED) is a mock unit of effective dose (E). It is equal to the committed effective dose due to the intake of the average amount of 40K in a banana.

1 BED ≈ 0.1 μSv

Note that a banana does not contain pure radioactive 40K, but natural potassium. Eating bananas, therefore, hardly affects the committed dose in reality because our metabolism ensures that any excess potassium in the body is almost immediately excreted in the urine.

Related unit

  • banana equivalent activity

» back to lexicon A - Z