Radiation Exposure to Nuclear Medicine Staff Working with Tc99m Radiopharmaceutical

Abstract

Introduction:Nuclear medicine technologists are potentially exposed to ionizing radiations while performing a variety of tasks associated with nuclear medicine procedures. We measured the external radiation doses for staff members working with Tc-99m radiopharmaceuticals to assess the annual radiation doses.Methods: Radiation doses for a nuclear medicine physician, a technologist, a nurse, a radiopharmacist, and a cleaning staff were measured by digital dosimeters. We measured the radiation exposure of these five people every day for 1 month. The dosimeters were placed at the waist levels on the anterior surfaces of the bodies.Results: After correction of natural background doses, the mean 1-month radiation dose for the physician, technologist, nurse, radiopharmacist, and cleaning staff were determined as 102.37±15.16 µSv, 110.8±7.5 µSv, 84.67±8.2 µSv, 111.8±7.1 µSv, and 106.5±12.27 µSv, respectively.Discussion: This study showed that effective radiation doses for nuclear medicine department staff members were within the permissible level.

Keywords

• Electronic dosimetry
• radiation protection
• radiation dose
• Technetium-99m radiopharmaceutical