Annual whole-body occupational radiation exposure in the medical and industrial fields in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The monitoring of radiation workers’ (RWs) occupational doses resulting from working in different applications is essential to comply with the recommended dose limit (20 mSv) and to establish a reference level for the annual occupational dose. In Saudi Arabia, a national project to assess the occupational doses in different occupations has been conducted, in which several studies have been published. This study is intended to review these studies and compiles the annual occupational doses – in terms of the whole-body effective dose. The project included the thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) records of 57 898 RWs in the medical and industrial fields. The RWs in the medical field included workers in diagnostic radiology (DR), nuclear medicine (NM), radiotherapy (RT), dentistry (Dent.), interventional radiology (IR), and operating rooms (OR). The RWs in the industrial field included workers for phosphate mining (PM), workers in the pavement construction (PC), and workers in cyclotron facilities (CF). The TLDs records were collected and analysed to assess the annual occupational dose – in terms of mean annual effective dose (AMED). The AMED ± SD was 0.88 ± 0.56 mSv for DR, 1.22 ± 1.01 mSv for NM, 0.73 ± 0.47 mSv for RT, 0.78 ± 0.47 mSv for Dent., 0.95 ± 0.61 mSv for IR, 0.59 ± 0.44 mSv for OR, 0.80 ± 0.46 mSv for PC, 0.66 ± 0.45 mSv for PM, and 1.60 ± 1.46 mSv for CF. The results showed significant differences in the AMEDs among the workers (p = 0.001). The highest AMEDs in the medical and industrial fields were those of NM and CF workers, respectively. However, the AMEDs for the RWs in both fields were below the annual recommended occupational dose limit and 72% were below the public dose limit (1 mSv). UNSCEAR conducts evaluations of worldwide occupational exposure to provide a reliable and comprehensive estimate of worldwide dose distributions and trends. UNSCEAR’s last evaluation of occupational exposure was in 2002; however, the report did not provide any information about Saudi Arabia. Updating information on occupational exposure in these reports is important to reflect worldwide practices in radiation work environments. Therefore, this paper can serve as a source of information for international efforts, such as those encouraged by UNSCEAR.