I
(In)CelibatePsycho2
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@Clavicular
We all know Bananas are radioactive, but we would all feel safe with a dozen or so bananas in our house. But what about 1000 bananas? A single banana should have a little under 500 mg of potassium. A 1 kg bag of potassium chloride has over 500 grams of potassium. That means the potassium chloride bag has the potassium of over 1000 bananas. I was a bit worried that this amount of radiation would be a bit of a looksmin (like how radiation from the sun is a looksmin) so I decided to look into it a bit.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/rsm/10/1/10_1_14/_pdf
According to this source, potassium chloride is radioactive enough to be used to teach radiation. A couple grams of potassium chloride (less than our 1 kg bag) was compressed to create little radiation tablets or whatever so that students could use them to study radiation. This means potassium chloride is not special in that the potassium in it is radioactive just like the potassium in other places (like bananas).
Also, another source that I didn't bother to save said that the radioactivity of potassium is proportional to the amount of potassium, so I do believe that a 1 kg bag of potassium chloride would give off about the same amount of radiation as 1000 bananas. But then again that source was talking about potassium in salts, so maybe not, maybe bananas are special or something.
https://sci-hub.st/10.3938/jkps.72.1387
This study calculated the radiation suffered by workers at a Japanese potassium facility. There was a bunch of potassium chloride in the facility , as well as other forms of potassium.
Here are some quotes from the study:
“In general, the annual external dose depended on many factors, including work type, chemical form and quantity of potassium compounds, and annual working time. The annual external dose to workers at potassium processing facilities was lower than the dose limit for the general public. However, there is a risk of increasing the annual external dose to workers at potassium processing facilities if any factors affecting the annual external dose are changed.”
“Annual radiation dose to the workers resulting from external exposure to potassium ranged 0.003 - 0.364 mSv/yr. “
Apparently the worldwide average natural dose of radiation to humans is 2.4 mSv per year. As such, it seems like potassium chloride is not that significant of a threat. The study could be biased though, perhaps they were paid off by the potassium company to do shitty math so that the company looks really safe and doesn't have to add a bunch of safety stuff. I don't know, and I didn't read many studies about this stuff because I am lazy. I did watch a video by MatPat, in which he said 1 banana = 1% of the average background radiation you get every day. That means 1000 bananas = 10x the average background radiation you get a day, which does not look very good. I think he may have been saying that in the context of eating the bananas though, in which case what he said means nothing because we are not consuming 1 kg of potassium chloride a day. Our concern is the radiation from the potassium chloride just sitting in our cabinet, slowly releasing radiation into the house every day, not of the small amount of radiation we will get from eating like 2 grams of KCl a day.
Anyways in conclusion I don't really know if Potassium Chloride is safe, but for the time being I will keep it in the house and keep using it until I see evidence that it releases enough radiation to be a looksmin. One of you guys should do the research for me, or something, and report back on the safety.
We all know Bananas are radioactive, but we would all feel safe with a dozen or so bananas in our house. But what about 1000 bananas? A single banana should have a little under 500 mg of potassium. A 1 kg bag of potassium chloride has over 500 grams of potassium. That means the potassium chloride bag has the potassium of over 1000 bananas. I was a bit worried that this amount of radiation would be a bit of a looksmin (like how radiation from the sun is a looksmin) so I decided to look into it a bit.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/rsm/10/1/10_1_14/_pdf
According to this source, potassium chloride is radioactive enough to be used to teach radiation. A couple grams of potassium chloride (less than our 1 kg bag) was compressed to create little radiation tablets or whatever so that students could use them to study radiation. This means potassium chloride is not special in that the potassium in it is radioactive just like the potassium in other places (like bananas).
Also, another source that I didn't bother to save said that the radioactivity of potassium is proportional to the amount of potassium, so I do believe that a 1 kg bag of potassium chloride would give off about the same amount of radiation as 1000 bananas. But then again that source was talking about potassium in salts, so maybe not, maybe bananas are special or something.
https://sci-hub.st/10.3938/jkps.72.1387
This study calculated the radiation suffered by workers at a Japanese potassium facility. There was a bunch of potassium chloride in the facility , as well as other forms of potassium.
Here are some quotes from the study:
“In general, the annual external dose depended on many factors, including work type, chemical form and quantity of potassium compounds, and annual working time. The annual external dose to workers at potassium processing facilities was lower than the dose limit for the general public. However, there is a risk of increasing the annual external dose to workers at potassium processing facilities if any factors affecting the annual external dose are changed.”
“Annual radiation dose to the workers resulting from external exposure to potassium ranged 0.003 - 0.364 mSv/yr. “
Apparently the worldwide average natural dose of radiation to humans is 2.4 mSv per year. As such, it seems like potassium chloride is not that significant of a threat. The study could be biased though, perhaps they were paid off by the potassium company to do shitty math so that the company looks really safe and doesn't have to add a bunch of safety stuff. I don't know, and I didn't read many studies about this stuff because I am lazy. I did watch a video by MatPat, in which he said 1 banana = 1% of the average background radiation you get every day. That means 1000 bananas = 10x the average background radiation you get a day, which does not look very good. I think he may have been saying that in the context of eating the bananas though, in which case what he said means nothing because we are not consuming 1 kg of potassium chloride a day. Our concern is the radiation from the potassium chloride just sitting in our cabinet, slowly releasing radiation into the house every day, not of the small amount of radiation we will get from eating like 2 grams of KCl a day.
Anyways in conclusion I don't really know if Potassium Chloride is safe, but for the time being I will keep it in the house and keep using it until I see evidence that it releases enough radiation to be a looksmin. One of you guys should do the research for me, or something, and report back on the safety.
