Radiation dose

xabi

These figures are rough estimates but for arguments sake lets say:

A chest x-rays gives 0.1mSv
30hours in a plane gives 0.1mSv
2 weeks average background radiation gives 0.1msv

Is the chest x-ray more damaging to the person due to it being in one dose?

lonestargirl

There are two broad types of effect from radiation: deterministic and stochastic

Deterministic effects have a threshold for the effect and the severity increases with dose. Both tumour cell kill and normal tissue damage due to radiation therapy would be deterministic effects. However repair is also possible during this time, hence radiation therapy treatments are 'fractionated' by being spread over days/weeks as this preferentially spares normal tissues.

Stochastic effects are probabilistic, the likelihood of them happening increases with dose but the severity is independent of dose. Cancer induction due to radiation exposure would be an example of a stochastic effect.

In the cases of the chest x-Ray versus background there isn't really any difference as they are at the level of stochastic effects (and the probability of any effect is really very small at those doses).