An assessment of occupational effective dose in several medical departments in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

PurposeTo assess occupational effective dose in fourteen different medical departments in Saudi Arabia during 2018–2019. MethodsThermoluminescent dosemeters (TLD-100) made of Harshaw detector crystal of LiF:Ti,Mg were used to estimate effective doses for 1,375 medical workers. These TLDs are made of Harshaw detector crystal of LiF:Ti,Mg with an estimated tissue equivalence (Zeffective) of 8.15 and density of 2.65 g/cm3. TLDs were analyzing using Harshaw model 6600 plus TLD reader along with WinREMS software. ResultsThe annual mean effective doses for the workers in 2018 and 2019 remained in the range of 0.27–0.96 and 0.34–1.24 mSv respectively. The annual collective doses for all workers in 2018 and 2019 were found to be 591 and 847 person-mSv respectively. More than 93% of the workers received an effective dose of less than 1 mSv. A comparison of occupational dose values among the studied departments revealed that workers in the nuclear medicine and cardiac catheterization exposed to the highest annual effective doses. ConclusionIn compliance with the ALARA principle, the occupational doses were distributed with a low dose range in mind. In general, the dose values for this study are an indication of an adequative radiation practices mainly due to reducing radiation leakage by using better manufacturing equipment, improving the effective radiation protection policies, developing a highly effective radiation protection equipments, and having access to the latest radiology literature.