Among Other Problems with Smoking, There Is a Danger from Radiation

question 100

Multiple Choice

Among other problems with smoking, there is a danger from radiation, according to the following report. "Tobacco plants are grown in soils with high phosphate fertilizers that are naturally contaminated with the alpha-particle emitting radionuclide polonium-210. In one year, the average smoker will irradiate the bronchial epithelium with 8 to 9 rem, the equivalent dose of radiation from 250 to 300 chest X-ray films per year" (Pediatrics, September 1993, p. 464) . How does this annual dose from tobacco compare to an average annual dose of 3.6 mSv that a nonsmoker receives from background radiation? (1 Sv = 100 rem)

• A)about 250 times more
• B)about 25 times more
• C)about 3 times more
• D)about 1/4 as much
• E)about 1/3 as much

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Definitions:

Long-Run Supply Curves

A graphical representation showing the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied over a longer period, considering adjustments in factors of production.

Purely Competitive

A market structure characterized by many buyers and sellers, all of whom are price takers offering homogenous products.

Downsloping

Characteristic of a curve or line on a graph that shows a decrease in value as it moves from left to right, commonly used in economics to describe demand curves.

Market Demand

The aggregate amount of a product or service all buyers in a market are prepared to buy at different price points.