Occupational exposure of workers in the nuclear medicine department

<p>Noreen Marwat, Shazia Fatima, Sadaf Butt and Muhammad Faheem</p>

Occupational exposure of workers in the nuclear medicine department

Noreen Marwat, Shazia Fatima, Sadaf Butt and Muhammad Faheem

Nuclear Medicine Oncology & Radiotherapy Institute, Pakistan

: J Diagnos Tech Biomed Anal

Abstract

The present work was aimed to assess the radiation safety at Nuclear Medicine Department being a work environment. Radiation exposure of the employees in the last 20 years and the effects of legislative changes in radiological protection were analyzed. Radiation workers at the Nuclear Medicine department were regularly and individually monitored using TLD and Film badges. Annual doses of the employees of nuclear medicine department, registered in the period 2005–2016, were analyzed statistically. Technicians were found to be the largest exposed professional group, whereas Radio Pharmacist received the highest annual dose. Physicians received an average annual dose at the border detection methods. Ancillary staff occasionally received doses above the method detection limit (MDL). The average annual dose for all dosimetry records was 0.6 mSv, and that for dosimetry records equal and higher than MDL was 1.7 mSv. There was no case of an exceeded dose limit for a worker. Furthermore, improvement of radiological protection had a significant impact on the reduction of doses for the most exposed employees.