ご指名質問dosimeters回答(Shohei)

UG先生からのご指名質問にお答えします。文中の赤字の意味合いについて解説していきます。

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20111025/1319498440

A: In order to measure external radiation doses, a small dosimeter that can be attached to your chest or carried in a pocket will do. Such gadgets are aimed at gauging radiation doses per hour or accumulated doses, and products in the 20,000 to 60,000 yen range are hot sellers these days.
If you want to measure radiation emissions in a given amount of time at a certain location, you can use a survey meter. Since the equipment is more sensitive to radiation than dosimeters, it comes in at a rather pricy 300,000 to 500,000 yen per unit, and is mainly purchased by local governments and companies.

Q: Are many private individuals snapping up dosimeters?

A: There had apparently been a marked uptick in private individuals buying dosimeters at electronics shops and Internet retailers. According to Hitachi-Aloka Medical, one of Japan's major dosimeter manufacturers, the company used to produce 400 dosimeters a month before the start of the nuclear crisis on March 11, but monthly production volume has jumped to some 10,000 since.

単語の意味をまず調べるとsnap upで他動詞として「…をすばやくつかむ[買う]，に飛びつく」とあります（『スーパーアンカー英和辞典』第４版，学研教育出版）。ただ買うわけではなく，飛びつくように買うのですね。英英辞書のLDOCEで確認すると以下のように定義されています。

snap sb/sth up
1 to buy something immediately, especially because it is cheap

この表現が使用されている文を見直すと，「一般の方は線量計を飛びつき買いする」のようになります。単語からも人々の放射能汚染への警戒心がかなり高いということが読み取れます。また前後の文を読むと，今回の質問の答えはYesが正解です。（ゼミ生 Shohei）