Do you believe, as I used to, that radioactivity is very rare and very dangerous, restricted to arsenals and power plants? Let's take a look at your kitchen. The bananas are radioactive from their potassium, the Brazil nuts have a thousand times more radium than any other food item, and your dried herbs and spices were irradiated to counter bacteria, germination and spoilage. There's thorium in your microwave oven and americium in your smoke detector. 你是否曾经与我一样,相信放射性是非常罕见并且极度危险的东西?并且只有在军工厂和核电站才能觅到它的踪迹?让我们来看看你的厨房吧。由于含有钾元素,香蕉具有放射性;巴西坚果里含有的镭元素是其他食物的上千倍;你的干香草和香料经受过辐射杀菌处理,目的是消灭细菌、抑制萌芽、防止腐败。你的微波炉里有钍元素,而你的烟雾感应器中则有镅元素。 Elsewhere in the house, cat litter, cigarettes, adobe, granite and brick are all actively radiating you. Always and forever, radiation is both raining down on you from the skies -- striking mile-high Denver two to three times as powerfully as San Diego -- and floating up at you from our bedrock's decaying uranium. Those all-natural mineral waters you soaked in on that spa vacation? Did the brochure mention that hot springs are hot in two senses, as the heat emanates from those same uranium combustions? 环顾你家四周,猫沙盆、香烟、土坯、花岗岩和砖块都在永不停歇地辐射你。每时每刻,你不仅会受到来自天空的辐射—高原之城丹佛市受到的辐射是 地亚哥的两至三倍—还会受到来自地下基岩铀衰变的辐射。那么你在温泉假期时享受的全天然矿物质温泉水呢?宣传小册子有没有提到温泉水的热度有两个方面的含义,因为水温就来自于铀衰变所产生的热量? |