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re: Electronic Personal Dosimeters
I'd like to share my opinion of the Siemens EPD2....
We have had two Siemens EPD2s here at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since
1993, and we like them. We have primarily used them in some of our clinical
areas, where staff are frequently in contact with patients who have undergone
diagnostic nuclear medicine studies. We wanted to assure the staff that even
though the patients are radioactive, the actual exposure one gets from them
is quite low. We like it that the person wearing the EPD2 can see the
exposure rate and the cumulative exposure any time he or she wants.
Another application we have used the EPD2s is with declared pregnant women in
our biomedical research areas. Although one's occupational exposure in our
labs is almost always 0 (no more than natural background, that is), because
the pregnant workers are especially aware of their environment and radiation
exposure, giving them and EPD2 always makes them feel more comfortable.
By the way, we do not solely rely on the EPD2 to give the documented exposure
for the pregnant woman; we still use film badges. Still, we find that using
the EPD2 is an excellent supplement to the monitoring program.
There is a great deal of education that needs to go on before I hand an EPD2
to someone for use and to be able to interpret the measurements. The EPD2
accumulates natural background, about 0.2-0.3 mrem per day, and unless we
specifically tell the person about it, they think the 0.2-0.3 mrem is an
occupational exposure.
The only drawback we have encountered with our EPD2s is near an
electromagnetic field, even from a computer monitor. If a field is strong
enough, it will put the dosemeter into alarm, and it will indicate a high
radiation exposure. If we don't take note of the exposure reading
beforehand, thea previous exposure info gets lost. So we also instruct staff
to keep the dosemeters away from electromagnetic fields.
This is just my opinion, and I hope it helps.
Steven Alford, M.S.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
* Steven J. Alford, M.S. | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute *
* Radiation Safety Officer | 44 Binney St. *
* | Boston, MA, 02115 *
* email: | *
* | VOX: (617) 632-3005 *
* rad_tech@dfci.harvard.edu | FAX: (617) 632-3543 *
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