What is the maximum radiation exposure to an unborn child?

• A. 10 rem
• B. 1 rem
• C. 100 rem
• D. 0 rem

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is fetal dose limits in radiological safety. When a worker is pregnant, the dose that the unborn child can receive is treated separately from the worker’s own dose, and steps are taken to keep that fetal dose as low as reasonably achievable. In this context, the maximum permitted dose to the fetus over the entire pregnancy is set as 10 rem. That means, through shielding, reassignment, and careful operation in radiation areas, efforts are made to ensure the fetus does not accumulate more than 10 rem (100 mSv) during the pregnancy.

Understanding this helps you see why 10 rem is presented as the upper bound. It’s higher than what you’d aim for day to day, but it’s the limit that, if reached, would require additional protective actions to stay within the allowed exposure. The idea is to minimize exposure as much as possible, keeping the actual fetal dose well below this limit whenever feasible.

The other numbers are either lower than the cap or much higher than the stated limit, which is why they aren’t used as the maximum in this scenario.