Doses in the Vicinity of Mobile X-ray Equipment in a Children’s Intensive Care Unit

Most of the patients in the intensive care unit for children are newborns and infants having an infection of the central nervous system, with systemic septic and respiratory infections. Therefore, mobile X-ray equipment including mobile shields is routinely used for diagnosis of the respiratory tract, heart and endovascular cateterisation. The aim of this work was to determine the radiation exposure to the children in the vicinity of the exposed patient in the same or next room. Three measurement runs were carried out with thermoluminescence dosimetry system. The results show that the homogeneity of the irradiation field is adequate, the exposure of children to radiation in the vicinity of the exposed patient in the same or next room is very low, practically in the range of the lowest detectable dose. The entrance dose on the breast of the patient was found to be 0.07 mSv. Therefore, there is no basis for the risk estimation of genetic, leukemogenic and cancerogenic detriment

EURADOS intercomparison of passive<em> H*</em>(10) area dosemeters 2014.

Under the umbrella of the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS), different working groups have responded to the requests of monitoring services in Europe for independent tests of dosimetry systems for harmonization and quality assurance. After having performed regular intercomparisons of personal dosemeters, EURADOS Working Group 3, &quot;Environmental Dosimetry&quot;, performed the first EURADOS intercomparison for passive ambient dose equivalent, abbreviated H*(10), area dosemeters used for environmental monitoring in 2014 (IC2014env). Such dosimetry systems are generally used to monitor nuclear installations, besides other applications. The results of this intercomparison with a total of more than 500 dosemeters help to better understand influence parameters and the possible accuracy of typical dosimetric measurements using passive dosemeters. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Status of passive environmental dosimetry in Europe.

EURADOS Working Group 3 (WG3) aims at providing information about the correct measurement of the ambient dose equivalent (rate) in the environment and has a specific subgroup (WG3-SG2) that focuses on passive environmental dosimetry. One of the initial tasks of the subgroup was to gain an overview of passive dosimetry practices in Europe. On the basis of a survey carried out by this subgroup in 2013/2014, information on the state-of-the-art was gained, several conclusions were drawn and some open questions have been identified, e.g. the harmonization in the terminology, uncertainty assessment procedures and corrections of measured values by passive dosemeters due to transport and climate. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Comparison of double dosimetry algorithms for estimating the effective dose in occupational dosimetry of interventional radiology staff

'Double dosimetry' i.e. measurement with two dosemeters, one located above the protective apron and one under has been recommended in interventional radiology (IR) to determine the effective dose to staff. Several algorithms have been developed to calculate the effective dose from the readings of the two dosemeters, but there is no international consensus on what is the best algorithm. In this work, a few of the most recently developed algorithms have been tested in typical IR conditions. The effective dose and personnel dosemeter readings were obtained experimentally by using thermoluminescent dosemeters in and on a Rando-Alderson phantom provided with a lead apron. In addition, the effective dose and personnel dosemeter readings were calculated by the Monte Carlo method for the same irradiation geometry. The results suggest that most of the algorithms overestimate effective dose in the selected IR conditions, but there is also a risk of underestimation by using the least conservative algorithms. Two of the algorithms seem to comply best with the chosen criteria of performance, i.e. no underestimation, minimum overestimation and close estimation of effective dose in typical IR conditions. However, it might not be justified to generalise the results. It is recommended that whenever personnel doses approach or exceed the dose limit, IR conditions should be further investigated and the possibility of over- or under-estimation of effective dose by the algorithm used should be considered