Which will give you a greater radiation dose: smoking a pack of cigarettes, eating a banana, or working in a nuclear power plant for a year?

Let me first tell you the conclusion. Cigarettes definitely emit more radiation.

Cigarettes contain radioactive polonium and lead. The radioactive substance polonium-210 releases alpha rays. When smoking, polonium enters the mouth, airways, and alveoli and attaches to them. If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, the annual radiation dose is about 35mSv (radiation dose is usually measured in millisieverts mSv). Smoking for a year is equivalent to doing 3 PET/CT scans.

Bananas contain about 0.0117% radioactive potassium-40. Potassium-40 is a radioactive isotope that emits beta and gamma rays when it decays. Every time you eat a banana, you are exposed to about 0.1μSv (1mSv=1000μSv) of radiation. Eating 20 bananas is equivalent to the radiation dose of half a cigarette.

According to my country's statistical data, the average annual occupational exposure dose of employees in major domestic nuclear power plants is about 0.25-0.35 mSv, which is only equivalent to the radiation dose generated by 2-3 X-rays. The average annual radiation dose for residents living around nuclear power plants due to working in nuclear power plants is only 0.01 mSv.

What is the radiation level of 0.01mSv? Watching TV for two hours a day for a year or flying from Beijing to Europe can generate a radiation dose of 0.01mSv.

According to statistics from the United Nations, medical radiation accounts for as much as 98% of all radiation caused by human factors, while radiation generated by nuclear power plants accounts for a very small proportion, about 0.25%, which will not have any impact on human health.

In fact, there is no need to worry. When discussing the impact of radiation on health, we need to consider the radiation dose. It is unscientific to discuss the impact without considering the dose.
You should know that in the universe we live in, any object that is not at absolute zero will radiate. In physics, radiation is a way of energy transfer. Everything in the world, when the ambient temperature is above absolute zero (-273.15℃), will continue to transfer heat to the outside, and this phenomenon is radiation.

In other words, radiation is everywhere in the environment we live in.