Page 31 - Background Radiation News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Protection. if you take it too early, you're not going to get the protection when you need it. >> obviously, people in all these different areas are trying to measure radiation doses to get a sense for people. you have one, i got one too. >> it basically tells you two things. one is, since you're wearing it, how much radiation you've been exposed to. this is measuring that. and also it has an alarm, yours does, if you find yourself in an area where there's too much radiation, it will alarm. you can't see this number here, but this number went up .001 now. very, very small amount. probably just...

It went up 0.001 now, very, very small amount. probably just from normal background radiation. yours is the still at zero. it's likely to go up and that would be normal. if it got up to the 1 range, a thousand times that, that would be of concern. >> that is japan, obviously still some concerns here in the u.s. you remember yesterday we listed two energy secretary steven chu was asked if the nuclear disaster will have influence on this country. we pointed out we couldn't glean much from his answer. here he is again today appearing on capitol hill. >> it would be premature to say anything other...

What can you tell us? >> reporter: well, yeah, we're carrying these pocket dosimeters. they tell two things, how much radiation you've been exposed to and also it will give an alarm if you're suddenly exposed to a particularly high level. in this case is known as one sievert. my levels quadrupled over the last 36 hours since i've been wearing it which may sound concerning but to put it in context it's actually not that much higher than just the levels you would get with background radiation. it is higher for sure and that makes sense given that if you measure the air in tokyo, official reports...

Early because you close the window on yourself. so timing is really key with this. it is protective but you want to take it in the face of an imminent exposure or right after exposure, and then you have protect. if you take it too early, you're not going to get protection when you need it. >> people in all of these different areas are trying to measure radiation doses to get a sense for people that you have -- you have the same thing. >> this is a pocket -- it tells you two things. one since you're wearing it, how much radiation you've been exposed to. this is measuring that. also an alarm, yo...

They all send off radiation. deb feyerick is live in new york to actually -- you have a look at what is normal and what isn't. so calm our fears. >> well, you know, listen, carol. it's everywhere, all around us. exposed to very low doses, every single day. it's in the air in rocks, oil, cigarettes, secondhand smoke, fertilizers, the tv sets all around us and x-rays. now, even when you fly, you're actually exposed to certain levels of radiation. a flight from new york to los angeles is about half the amount of a chest x-ray. and even that is very, very small. what's happened over the time is th...