What surprised me was that the total expected exposure was much higher for the patients spouse that the patient themselves. It's got twice the thickness of partner in which to be absorbed, but there's only close exposure for maybe 8-10 hours a day, and the inverse square to deal with.
Maybe some were. I'm basing it off a comment from a professor regarding nuclear power in small electronics. Quote (from memory, thus unreliable) below:
"So, they tested these things for all the possible stresses they would encounter -- high G maneuver and impact if they were in a car wreck, crushing force, electrical damage (from a lightening strike, etc), anything that they were likely to encounter whilst inside a human body. However, they were never thermally tested -- after all, why would the human body ever experience >1000 degrees F?
Ends up the answer is cremation. So, for a while, a major hazard around funeral homes was radioactive crematoriums."
"The whole body exposure is estimated to be approximately 0.1 rem per year to the patient and approximately 7.5 mrem per year to the patient's spouse."
In the same units, 100mrem (patient) to 7.5mrem (spouse).
Using the xkcd[1] radiation chart, that's the equivalent of a head CT scan every two years for the patient, and 2 plane flights a year for the partner.
What surprised me was that the total expected exposure was much higher for the patients spouse that the patient themselves. It's got twice the thickness of partner in which to be absorbed, but there's only close exposure for maybe 8-10 hours a day, and the inverse square to deal with.