Editing Becquerel (section)

== Examples ==
For practical applications, 1&nbsp;Bq is a small unit. For example, there is roughly 0.017&nbsp;g of [[potassium-40]] in a typical human body, producing about 4,400 decays per second (Bq).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Radioactive Human Body |url=https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/radioactive-human-body |website=Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations}}</ref>

The activity of radioactive [[americium]] in a home [[smoke detector]] is about 37&nbsp;kBq (1&nbsp;μCi).<ref>{{cite web |title=Smoke Detector (1970s) |url=https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/consumer/miscellaneous/smoke-detector.html |website=Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity |access-date=25 September 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

The global inventory of [[carbon-14]] is estimated to be {{val|8.5|e=18|u=Bq}} (8.5&nbsp;EBq, 8.5 [[exa]]becquerel).<ref>G.R. Choppin, [[Jan-Olov Liljenzin|J.O.Liljenzin]], J. Rydberg, "Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry", 3rd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-7506-7463-8}}.</ref>

These examples are useful for comparing the amount of activity of these radioactive materials, but should not be confused with the amount of exposure to ionizing radiation that these materials represent. The level of exposure and thus the [[absorbed dose]] received are what should be considered when assessing the effects of ionizing radiation on humans.