# Safe place to live on Earth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2010, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687 "2010-08-09T08:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harleydogmommy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@Harleydogmommy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harleydogmommy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/1 "2010-08-09T08:57:50Z")
Where is the best place on Earth to live to avoid the most radiation from the Sun (besides a cave)? Would the worst place to live be at the poles? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/2 "2010-08-09T09:54:57Z")
Somewhere that doesn’t get much sun, like London or Seattle. Barring that, the Dead Sea region. Those extra 300 meters of air are supposed to provide a lot of protection from radiation. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/3 "2010-08-09T13:07:20Z")
I would have thought the best place would be at the poles, as long as you switch poles every six months so as to be there during the winter. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/4 "2010-08-09T13:37:39Z")
? Sunlight is dangerous enough to consider relocating? A hat and sunscreen isn’t enough? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/5 "2010-08-09T14:04:31Z")
Which radiation? Winter at the poles would be dark, but a lot of auroral activity takes place then. Which indicates a lot of charged particles & other stuff streaming down. So while you’re avoiding light & direct radiation, you’re near the place where the Earth’s magnetic field concentrates a lot of other stuff streaming from the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/6 "2010-08-09T15:32:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Somewhere that doesn’t get much sun, like London or Seattle. You may want to rethink that. It’s not the amount of visible sunlight you need to worry about. It’s the UV radiation that counts, and much of that penetrates clouds quite nicely. Of course, if sunshine levels are important, within the USA, [move to Alaska and get out of Arizona](http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/pctposrank.txt). > [@](#): > > Barring that, the Dead Sea region. Those extra 300 meters of air are supposed to provide a lot of protection from radiation. Since the Earth is closest to the Sun in its orbit in January, that would rule out much of the Southern Hemisphere. The same for any location in the Tropics, north and south. Add a few degrees for good measure, say 45 degrees north (ruling out the Dead Sea) and there’s plenty of places from 45 Degrees North to live. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/7 "2010-08-09T17:00:15Z")
In school, when we needed to run experiments with minimal background radiation, we would run them in the reactor chamber of the school’s research reactor (literally sitting on a platform next to the pool), as background radiation was ~30% of what it was outside (and substantially lower than the basement of the physics building, which had significantly higher radiation, probably due to radon gas leakage from the ground). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/8 "2010-08-09T17:09:23Z")
It doesn’t matter where you are on the globe; just stay indoors with shuttered windows. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safe-place-to-live-on-earth/549687/9 "2010-08-09T18:19:43Z")
> [@Harleydogmommy](#): > > Where is the best place on Earth to live to avoid the most radiation from the Sun (besides a cave)? In a cave, especially one with a lot of granite in it, you’re trading solar radiation for radiation coming from the Earth itself. The Earth’s crust is just _full of_ uranium and all of the radioactive materials uranium decays into given enough time, including radioactive gases like radon which get worse the deeper you go in some regions.