Final answer:
An individual can be released after being administered unsealed by-product material if the TEDE to another person is not likely to exceed 5 millisieverts per year. Long-term exposure to radiation can have serious health consequences such as cancer or genetic changes, and even short-term exposures at work are carefully regulated to minimize these risks.
Step-by-step explanation:
An individual who has been administered unsealed by-product material may be released from medical care if the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) to any other individual from exposure is not likely to exceed 5 millisieverts (or 0.005 sieverts) in a year. When discussing radiation exposure, it is important to note that doses above certain thresholds can be harmful or fatal. For instance, radiation doses of 600 rem and higher are invariably fatal, while a dose of 500 rem kills half of the exposed subjects within 30 days. However, doses of 50 rem or less may cause only limited health effects in the short term but may still result in long-term health issues such as cancer or genetic changes that could affect offspring.
When an individual has absorbed ionizing radiation, the corresponding whole-body radiation dose is calculated. For example, if a 50.0-kg person is exposed to ionizing radiation over their entire body and they absorb 1.00 J of energy from that radiation, then this absorbed dose can be expressed in sieverts (Sv) which takes into account the biological effect of the radiation. The equivalent dose is the measure used, and it is equal to the effective dose in sieverts when the whole human body is equivalently exposed.
In practical scenarios, such as a plumber at a nuclear power plant receiving a whole-body dose of 30 mSv during a brief repair job, the risk assessment includes calculations for the radiation-induced yearly risk of death from cancer and the chance of genetic defects from such maximum allowable exposures.