Hopefully people will read the very last line of the article. We usually figured about 10 mR per chest x-ray. 500 chest x-rays would then be 5000 mR/hr, which is the maximum a rad worker in a Nuclear Power Plant is allowed per year. The NRC limits a declared pregnant worker to 500 mR over the 9 months of the pregnacy Gary McCahillConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Radiation Division (CT-DEEP-RD)Radiation Control Physicist79 Elm Street (Basement)Hartford, CT 06106 860-424-3691 office860-916-0363 cell860-424-4065 FAX860-444-5667 DEP@Millstonegary.mccahill@ct.gov From: International Web Resource for Radon Professionals [mailto:RADONPROFESSIONALS@LIST.UIOWA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jim MedleySent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 9:59 PMTo: RADONPROFESSIONALS@LIST.UIOWA.EDUSubject: [RNPROF] Radiation and Pregnancy: A Fact Sheet for the Public To All: This is from the CDC. Is this talking about breathing Radon gas ? Cannot clarify this from the information provided on the site. Jim Medley Radiation and Pregnancy: A Fact Sheet for the PublicNote: If you are pregnant (or if you are thinking about getting pregnant) and you have questions about how radiation exposure could affect you or your pregnancy, you should talk with your doctor. Your doctor can help you better understand the risks of radiation exposure to you and to your developing baby.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has prepared this fact sheet to help you understand the possible health effects to your fetus from exposure to radiation.Prenatal Radiation ExposureThe exposure of a fetus to radiation is referred to as prenatal radiation exposure. This can occur when the mother's abdomen is exposed to radiation from outside her body. Also, a pregnant woman who accidentally swallows or breathes in radioactive materials may absorb that substance into her bloodstream. From the mother's blood, radioactive materials may pass through the umbilical cord to the baby or concentrate in areas of the mother's body near the womb (such as the urinary bladder) and expose the fetus to radiation.The possibility of severe health effects depends on the gestational age of the fetus at the time of exposure and the amount of radiation it is exposed to. Unborn babies are less sensitive during some stages of pregnancy than others. However, fetuses are particularly sensitive to radiation during their early development, between weeks 2 and 18 of pregnancy. The health consequences can be severe, even at radiation doses too low to make the mother sick. Such consequences can include stunted growth, deformities, abnormal brain function, or cancer that may develop sometime later in life. However, since the baby is shielded by the mother's abdomen, it is partially protected in the womb from radioactive sources outside the mother's body. Consequently, the radiation dose to the fetus is lower than the dose to the mother for most radiation exposure events.Increased Cancer RiskRadiation exposure before birth can increase a person's risk of getting cancer later in life.Unborn babies are especially sensitive to the cancer-causing effects of radiation. However, the increased risks depend on the amount of radiation to which the baby was exposed and the amount of time that it was exposed. For example, if the radiation dose to the fetus was roughly equivalent to 500 chest x-rays at one time, the increase in lifetime cancer risk would be less than 2% (above the normal lifetime cancer risk of 40 to 50%). ********** RN PROF (Subscription changes - archives) - http://list.uiowa.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=RADONPROFESSIONALS&A=1 ********************* RN PROF (Subscription changes - archives) - http://list.uiowa.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=RADONPROFESSIONALS&A=1 ***********