Radiation Protection Dosimetry of Medical Workers using Their Fingernails

Fingernail in combination with a device of electron spin/paramagnetic resonance (abbreviated to "ESR" here) has a good potential as a dosimetric tool for the assessment of accidental high-dose exposure of hands that could occur in medical facilities performing X-ray diagnosis or radiopharmaceutical manufacturing. While notable developments in the application of fingernail dosimetry are seen in recent studies, few data on medical applications are available and fundamental investigations are still needed in this field. With this thought, we have been investigating the possibility of the fingernail dosimetry for protecting the medical workers against unexpected, high-dose exposures. More concretely, we have been checking the stabilities of ESR signals from the fingernails linked with storage conditions and other influential factors, focusing on the variability in the dose responses among the individuals having different physiological properties (age, sex, etc.).