Evaluation of veterinary personnel exposure from X-ray diagnostics in the years 1974 to 1976

The number of personnel observed over the whole period varied between 160 and 185. The exposed film dosemeters were developed and evaluated at UVVVR in Prague. Common ORWO film dosemeters loaded in normal cartridges were used with appropriate filters permitting to estimate the radiation energy spectrum. The developed and evaluated film dosemeters were classified in two groups. The first group comprising 93.61% (1974), 90.38% (1975) and 93.86% (1976) of all dosemeters consisted of those which had not been exposed with measurable doses (doses lower than 7.74x10-7 C.kg-1). The other group comprised dosemeters with measurable exposure divided into subgroups, viz.: subgroup 1 with exposure between 7.74x10-7 and 7.74x10-6 C.kg-1 consisting of 4.52% (1974), 6.82% (1975) and 4.96% (1976) dosemeters; subgroup 2 with exposure between 7.74x10-6 and 7.74x10-5 C.kg-1 consisting of 1.61% (1974), 1.96% (1975) and 1.19% (1976) dosemeters; subgroup 3 with exposure of 7.74x10-5 and more consisting of 0.31% (1974) and 0.85% (1975) dosemeters. The first dosemeter group represents cases of exposure corresponding to the radiation hazard associated with X-ray diagnostics in agricultural institutions while observing all basic precautions. The incidence of exposures in the first subgroup can be attributed to specificities in X-ray esaminations in the individual plants. Exposures in the second subgroup is due to the neglect of safety precautions while exposures in the third subgroup are either due to inadvertence (a fallen out cartridge in the beam axis) or to the effort of documenting work with ionizing radiation. (J.F.)