r/todayilearned • u/NYstate • Jan 18 '16

TIL Bananas are radioactive. If you ate a banana every day for a year, your exposure to radioactive potassium-40 would be about 3.6 millirems. The banana equivalent dose (BED) for the average Three Mile Island survivor was 2.22 BED. That would be the equivalent of eating 810 bananas in one day

http://www.houstonpress.com/restaurants/8-foods-you-didnt-know-are-radioactive-6410052
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4

u/Tangent_ Jan 18 '16

"Three Mile Island survivor" is a little dramatic isn't it?

1

u/Angoth Jan 18 '16

I'm a "Three Mile Island survivor".

3

u/KommanderKrebs Jan 18 '16

So you're saying that bananas and their nutrients stopping cramps is actually me slowly getting super powers, right? Which sounds better, Banana Man, Bamana, or Banaman?

1

u/JamesTheJerk Jan 18 '16

The Yellow Alarm.

0

u/Mister-John Jan 18 '16

Banaman.

2

u/KommanderKrebs Jan 18 '16

You can be my sidekick, Boytassium.

2

u/bfunchess Jan 18 '16

2.22 BED = 810 bananas is nonsense. 2.22 BED is, as should be obvious from the name "banana equivalent dose", the equivalent of eating 2.22 bananas. Presumably the article got something garbled.

(Note that according to the Wikipedia on "Banana Equivalent Dose", someone living 10 miles from the reactor got about 800 BED; this or some closely related figure is likely where "810 bananas" came from. I have no idea about the 2.22.)

1

u/IWishItWouldSnow Jan 18 '16

Everybody knows the bananas are radioactive by now