As part of our RPA service staff radiation doses are monitored. Many of our customers deal directly with a personnel radiation dose monitoring service provider (e.g. Mirion, NRPB, Landauer) who will then forward to us the dose reports. Regular reports of doses received by staff are monitored by experienced members of the RRPS team and local Radiation Protection Supervisors are immediately informed if there is any cause for concern. Otherwise we keep a copy for our records and then forward the report to the customer. We keep records in order to be able to complete annual staff dose reports for our customers and to monitor trends in staff doses to ensure that they remain within acceptable limits. We liase with our monitoring service provider (Landauer) on behalf of some radiation workers (mostly those who work within the RSCH Trust) and distribute dosemeters, collect and return them to the service provider to be read and reported.
Whole body monitoring:
Whole body TLD badges are used. These are issued Monthly, 2-monthly or quarterly and worn on the trunk at chest or waist height. Some staff (eg interventional radiologists) are required to wear two badges. One badge to monitor their body dose, which is worn under their lead apron. The second ‘collar’ badge is used to monitor radiation dose to parts of the body not protected by the lead apron such as the eyes or thyroid – for convenience this is worn on the shoulder or collar outside the lead apron.
Extremity monitoring:
Staff who work handing radioisotopes or with their hands near to an X-ray beam will have their finger dose monitored either continually or periodically using TLD finger monitors. These monitors will either be in the form of fingerstalls or rings. Fingerstalls are used by staff handling radioisotopes, as they enable doses to be measured at the tips of the fingers. Radiologists may wear either rings or stalls, whichever they find most convenient and comfortable.
We issue finger monitors together with a form (extremity isotope form or extremity radiology form), on which the monitor number, the name of the wearer and the period of wear are recorded. Users are asked to complete the form with further details of activities undertaken in order to assist us in relating finger dose to workload. At the end of the monitoring period the finger monitors are returned to us together with the form.