Radiation Converter

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Hanna Pamuła, PhD

Hanna PamułaPhD

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Hanna (Hania) Pamuła holds a Ph.D. in Bioacoustics / Mechanical Engineering, obtained at AGH University of Science and Technology. She has participated in research work in labs in France and the UK and presented papers at several international conferences. Hania has a penchant for photography and graphic design. When not in the office, she’s probably traveling, hiking, or out in the field, watching birds and recording their calls. See full profile

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Małgorzata Koperska, MD and Adena Benn

Adena Benn

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Adena Benn is a Guyanese teacher with a degree in computer science who is always reading and learning. She loves problem-solving, everything tech, and working with teenagers. She has a passion for education and is especially interested in how children learn and the teaching methods that best suit their learning styles. She grew up on a farm in Pomeroon, Guyana, where she worked alongside her parents and siblings. As such, she is just as comfortable growing plants as teaching in the classroom. In her early life, she also gained expertise as a seamstress, which she learned from her mother. By grade 9, she had already acquired her dressmaker's certificate. Today she uses her skills to design many items for her family. In her free time, Adena loves to read, take long walks, write children’s stories and poetry, travel, or spend time with her family. See full profile

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The radiation converter is a simple tool to convert the radiation units — of absorbed dose and equivalent/effective dose. For the absorbed dose, you can choose between popular units, such as mGy and rads. In the conversion of equivalent dose, you can select standard mSv or rems but also BEDs — banana equivalent dose, which is an informal measure of ionizing radiation exposure. If you are interested in radiation topics, check out our other calculators:

Medical radiation calculator — to find out what dose you get from medical procedures such as X-ray or CT scan
Flight radiation calculator, which estimates the cosmic radiation exposure you get during your airplane flight.

Absorbed dose units

Absorbed dose is the energy deposited in any material by ionizing radiation. The basic unit is gray (Gy), which is equal to joules per kilogram. Other absorbed dose radiation units to which you can convert thanks to our radiation converter are:

Microgray;
Milligray;
Centigray; and
Rad (CGS unit)

The absorbed dose measure is often used in radiation protection, dosimetry, and radiology.

Equivalent dose units

The equivalent dose is the measure derived from an absorbed dose. It takes into account biological effectiveness according to radiation energy and its type:

H_T = ∑ W_R × D_T,R

where:

H_T — the equivalent dose in sieverts (Sv) absorbed by tissue T;
D_T,R — the absorbed dose in grays (Gy) in tissue T by radiation type R; and
W_R — the radiation weighting factor, representing the relative biological effectiveness.

Radiation weighting factors

Based on The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP Publication 103.
Radiation	W_R — radiation weighting factor
x-rays, gamma rays, beta particles, muons	1
neutrons (<1 MeV)	2.5 + 18.2·e^{−[ln(E)]²/6}
neutrons (1-50 MeV)	5.0 + 17.0·e^{−[ln(2·E)]²/6}
neutrons (>50 MeV)	2.5 + 3.25·e^{−[ln(0.04·E)]²/6}
protons, charged pions	2
α particles, nuclear fission products, heavy nuclei	20

The equivalent dose basic unit is sievert, and in the radiation converter, you can change that unit into:

Microsievert;
Millisievert;
Millirem;
Rem; and
Banana equivalent dose.

Effective dose units

The effective dose is a tissue-weighted sum of equivalent doses in all specified tissues and organs of the human body:

E = ∑ W_T × H_T

where:

E — effective dose to the entire organism; and
W_T — the tissue weighting factor.

In other words, the effective dose shows the sensitivity of different tissues to radiation - for the colon or lung, the effective dose will be higher than the equivalent dose for the brain or salivary glands.
The units are the same as in the equivalent dose because we are multiplying that measure by the dimensionless weighting factor.

Weighting factors for different tissues:

Based on The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP Publication 103.
Organs	Tissue weighting factors
Colon	0.19
Lung	0.16
Red bone marrow	0.13
Stomach	0.12
Breasts	0.12
Gonads	0.08
Bladder	0.04
Liver	0.04
Esophagus	0.04
Thyroid	0.04
Skin	0.01
Bone surface	0.01
Salivary glands	0.01
Brain	0.01
Remainder of the body	0.12
Total	1.00

How to use radiation converter to change between radiation units?

Check which part of the converter you need. Let's assume you want to convert the effective dose, so choose the bottom part.
Enter your given value into a proper box. For example, let's take the effective dose of a chest X-ray, which is 0.1 mSv.
The calculator displays the value in two other units. Now you know that 0.1 mSv is equal to 100 µSv and 0.01 rem. Remember that you can select different units from the drop-down list!

If you are interested in other radiation calculators, be sure to check out our radiation pressure calculator.