Talk:Background radiation

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I'm not sure about the protocol for removing a "stub" designation, but just letting you know that I think this one should go, if someone who knows how to properly go about it is interested in doing so. Gene Nygaard 00:55, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I think you just take it out - but I don't think this article is ready. There's a sentence or two about the cosmic microwave background radiation (about which much could be said - its significance in cosmology, recent measurements of anisotropy, and so on) a sentence or two about ground-level background ionizing radiation, an unclear indication of the differences between these two usages, and a boilerplate linkfarm to anything physics-related. I'll see if I can inflate the article somewhat. --Andrew 03:10, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

However, the cosmic microwave background radiation has its own article. Maybe it would be a good idea to merge them, though I'd think not. In any case, lack of detail about that doesn't mean that this one isn't sufficiently complete to not be a stub. This one shouldn't include an imperfect copy of that one; better just a summary discussion with link. Gene Nygaard 07:13, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

That's what it has now. It also no longer claims to be a stub. Still needs work, mind you. --Andrew 18:21, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

Disputing the facts: after reading the section on background radiation, I question this articles facts. The document from which it draws the average background dose of radiation at 2.7mSv per year also suggests that uranium miners (at 1.8mSv) are actually exposed to LESS radiation than average, which is illogical. Readers need to bear in mind that this document was written by the UN who gets all their nuclear and radiation advice from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a pro-nulcear organisation.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.167.125.217 (talk • contribs) .

Moved new comment to bottom - also removed same comment from article space. Vsmith 02:07, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I did a bit of reorganization in the opening paragraph. There really seems to be a lot of good information in the opening paragraphs (and in the article as a whole!) but I think the very beginning suffered from one of the longest run-on sentences that I've ever seen, and some issues with the lists of information that were presented. I tried to patch these up a bit.

I was in the midst of writing some suggestions on this to the talk page, and then just decided to be bold and try my hand at it. I tried to preserve the opening paragraph's information content, but I broke the long linear list into some bullets for readability. I think from going through the paragraph a few times the original idea was to talk about the three main natural sources, and then talk about artificial ones -- so this is how I organized the bullets.

I also tweaked the list of artificial sources a little bit, mostly for parallel structure. I think there are still some remaining readability issues in the second paragraph -- it's a bit tricky since the list of artificial sources contains a sublist talking about "global radioactive contamination," but this sublist is delimited by commas in the same way as the main list is. Perhaps some judiciously applied semicolons, or a duplicate bullet list would be in order? Or maybe the detailed list could be done away with in the heading, and moved into the main body of the article? The opening could just not the three main sources of natural radiation and then say that there are also artificial sources. That would keep the opening terse but informative. For example,

Background radiation is the ionizing radiation emitted from a variety of natural and artificial radiation sources. Primary natural sources include those in the Earth, cosmic rays from space, and atmospheric sources. These typically dwarf artifical sources of radiation, which for the population of the industrialized world is mostly from X-ray imaging.

Another suggestion -- the article could really benefit from having a graphic that ties together all of the exposure numbers that are discussed. Perhaps a pie chart with various contributions? It would really give the reader something to focus on, and help them to synthesize the considerable amount of information in the article. Wesino 10:21, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lamarsh and Baratta

Excellent source for background radiation information (pp 500). A breakdown should be added to the top of usual sources. From my radiation safety course at Purdue Nucl 205, a basic breakdown for the general population was as follows (Lamarsh has similar numbers)

Radiation Source H(mRem/year)
Cosmic (at sea level) 27
Cosmogenic (C-14 T) 1
Terrestrial 28
Body Burden (K-40) 39
Inhaled (Radon) 200
Medical/Dental X-rays 72
Radiopharmaceuticals 2
Nuclear Fallout 4
Nuclear Power 0.003
Total ~380

Just a basic list like that, and maybe a percentage category to put perspective on things. And maybe a gamma-ray breakdown map from pp 503 of L&B intro to nuclear engineering. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Smeelink (talk • contribs) 22:44, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] link to Cosmic microwave background radiation should be appear earlier.

I suggest to rename the article to background ionizing radiation.

Then, the background radiation can be a Disambiguation article, linking to the
Cosmic microwave background radiation, and
background ionizing radiation, and, perhaps,
the visible light from a nearby city and the highway, which in not wanted at the astronomical observations of far objects through the Earth atmosphere.
dima 09:02, 15 February 2007 (UTC)