On the 7th of September 2013, a Japanese man measures the radiation levels in Sakabuta Park, Koriyama city, in Fukushima prefecture where young children are playing. The city of 330,000 is located about 60 km (37 miles) from the disaster zone.
On a normal day, the average amount of radiation a person receives is between 0.10 – 0.20 micro sieverts (μSv). However, in this park the man takes readings from two different devices and gets results of 0.47 and 0.65 μSv at chest height. To put these readings in perspective, 0.25 μSv is the U.S. limit on an effective dose from a single airport security screening.
The man later gathers a reading of 22.97 μSv from a patch of sand on the corner cover of a road side gutter. To put THAT kind of reading into perspective, 10 – 30 μSv is the average dose of radiation coming from a full-body CT scan. These are the levels of radiation that the people of Koriyama are exposed to on a DAILY basis.