Re: Medical examination for a radiation worker

[Anthony Barber <a.barber@qut.edu.au>]

At 10:48 18/04/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Can anybody comment on the above topics?
>There is still a strong debate amongst staff of different fields within the
>hospital services on this issue. Staff working with isotopes, like those
>working in the nuclear medicine,radiographers, doctors, scientific
>officers, physicists. These people have exposures not only in external
>radiation but also internal exposures. But since not many facility can have
>in-vivo assessment of dose in the mean time. Only the usual film badge
>method is used.
>There seems to be argument how to define what a radiation worker is ? some

We define a rad worker as anyone who could "reasonably" be shown to receive 
greater than the 3/10 (of 20mSv) in a year - based on past history at our
facility.
We allow quite a liberal interpretation of this so that people who desperately
want to be classed as a rad worker can be as inventive as they like to try to
show doses higher than 6mSv/yr (fat chance!). But our TLD badge policy
(unwritten)
allows for badging of non "radiation workers" who work with radiation, for
a wide 
variety of reasons

>Are there really any effective means of medical examination which can make
>it relevant to the radiation induced effect to human body, the threshold of
>dose like 6mSv or 20mSv in those detections?

I would suggest chemical and/or radiological tests of urine/blood etc may
be the
best shot - but I am no medico.

Regards
Ant

Anthony Barber
RSO - Queensland University of Technology
ph  61 7 3864 3566
fax 61 7 3864 3993
a.barber@qut.edu.au
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Why not?
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