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This seems like a useful way to decrease concern about radiation exposure, but I think it causes the reverse problem. There is no size of banana-pile that I would consider dangerous. I would never think, "Well, that's as dangerous as a pile of 5 million bananas! Holy shit! Break out the lead suits and the iodine pills!"

Edit: if you believe the Wikipedia page on röntgen equivalents in man, it would seem that 100 rems "will cause illness," which, if I did my math ("maths" in the UK) correctly, is equivalent to eating around 10,000 bananas. It's not clear how much safer it is if you're not eating the bananas, but merely sitting near them, juggling them, or bathing in their puree.



> 100 rems "will cause illness," . . . equivalent to eating around 10,000 bananas

Well, those numbers are for acute exposure, so you would have to eat them all at once. In which case, I'd think the 1.2 million calories would also be a concern.


I'm thinking that 10,000 bananas in your stomach at the same time would be an even GREATER concern.


if I did my math ("maths" in the UK) correctly, is equivalent to eating around 10,000 bananas.

I think the number of bananas is actually higher:

100 rems * (1000 millirems / rem) * (365 bananas / 3.6 millirems) = about 10,000,000 bananas


Oh shit! Even worse! Break out the lead coffins!

Man, I should get better at math ("maths" in the UK).




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