Re: Dose to the eyes

[kmq@cosmail1.ctd.ornl.gov (Kim McMahan)]

At 02:14 PM 9/16/96 -0500, Rene Michel wrote:
>I am interested in finding methods for calculating the dose delivered to the 
>eyes of a person by a known amount of a beta-gamma contaminated liquid 
>source which is accidentally splashed or sprayed into a person's eyes.
>The are numerous resources available to estimate doses due to skin 
>contamination, but this does not seem to be the case for eye contamination.


The PC computer code VARSKIN Mod. 2 calculates dose at a user-selectable
depths in tissue; simply enter 300 mg/cm2 as the skin density thickness.
Note the code isn't validated to provide dose at this depth, but you might
use the reference below for that purpose. The harder aspect will probably be
to get the source activity right, but creative conservative assumptions
never seem to be in short supply.

You might also find the following reference useful:  "Beta Ray Dose
Distributions from Skin Contamination," W.G. Cross, N.O. Freedman, and P.Y.
Wong, Radiation Protection Dosimetry, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 149-168 (1992).
The authors provide dose rates from surface contamination at several depths
in tissue, including 3 mm.

Kim McMahan, CHP
Office of Radiation Protection
External Dosimetry Group
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
e-mail: mcmahankl@ornl.gov