Which unit of radiationn is used in medicine to describe tissue damage caused by radioactive substance?

Question

Which unit of radiationn is frequently used in medicine to describe the amount of tissue damage caused by a radioactive substance?
becquerel
curie
rad
rem

Answer 1

There are at least three ways to measure the effect of radiation. Each method has specific units of measurement associated with it:

Curies
(Ci) and becquerels(Bq) measure the activity as number of disintegrations per second. Activity is a property of the source of radiation; it indicates nothing about the effect of the radiation on the target material.

Rads
and grays (Gy) (Gy) are used in measuring the energy of radiation absorbed by the target material in joules per kilogram.

Sieverts (Sv)
or rems measure dose equivalents, a quantity used in radiological protection. The units of sieverts are also joules per kilogram. The sievert and gray both measure the effect of radiation on the target, but the sievert takes into account the effects of different types of radiation on human tissue.

So the answer is the rem, because that is the only one that takes into account human tissue as a target for the damage inflicted.

ref: http://www.chemcases.com/nuclear/nc-14.htm

Answer 2

rem

acronym for: Radiation Equivalent, Man or Roentgen Equivalent, Man

It is almost the same amount as a Rad, but applied to human tissue, so there are subtle differences between a Rad and a REM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning

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