In the Code of Federal Regulations (Title 10, Part 20), the US government has stated that the permitted limit for exposure to artificial everyday radiation of the population is 300 millirem (= 3 mSv) per year.
The limit for an exposed employee in the Netherlands is 20 mSv. You can see from the graph that even in the exceptional case that an emergency light tube breaks, there is no significant health risk. In the graph you can see some of the forms of radiation to which we are exposed in daily life on a scale from 0 – 8700 millirem.
