sievert (Sv), unit of radiation absorption in the International System of Units (SI). The sievert takes into account the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of ionizing radiation, since each form of such radiation—e.g., X-rays, gamma rays, neutrons—has a slightly different effect on living tissue. Accordingly, one sievert is generally defined as the amount of radiation roughly equivalent in biological effectiveness to one gray (or 100 rads) of gamma radiation. The sievert is inconveniently large for various applications, and so the millisievert (mSv), which equals 1/1,000 sievert, is frequently used instead. One millisievert corresponds to 10 ergs of energy of gamma radiation transferred to one gram of living tissue. The sievert was recommended in 1977 by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) as a substitute for the rem, the long-standing special unit for measuring biological absorption of radiation.
The average person receives about 2.4 mSv per year from natural radiation such as radon gas, thoron gas, and cosmic rays. A chest CT scan results in a dose of 6.8 mSv. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission limits workers who handle radioactive material to a yearly dose of 50 mSv. (During the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan in 2011, the maximum allowable dose for workers there was raised to 250 mSv.) In a short time a dose of 1 Sv causes acute radiation sickness, and a dose of 10 Sv is fatal.