Unnecessary X-ray exposures: spoilt films and their contribution to annual collective dose

Medical X-ray examinations in Romania give rise to a large annual collective dose equivalent of about 14,200 man Sv (90% of all man-made sources). The extent to which the unnecessary medical radiation contributes to this collective dose was not investigated and on a national scale the response is very difficult to obtain. This work is an attempt to estimate, even rough the current extent of unnecessary exposures due to repeated examinations and of those with poor image quality. (author)