Trends and Distribution Analysis of Occupational Exposure From Medical Practices in China (2010–2016)

Abstract

Occupational exposure to ionizing radiation from medical practices in China has been collected for a 7 y period between 2010 and 2016 from roughly 220 individual monitoring service providers through the Chinese Registry of Radiation Workers. Statistical dose distributions and characteristic tendencies are presented based on the evaluation in terms of six occupational categories. A reduction can be seen in average annual effective dose for interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, diagnostic radiology, radiotherapy, dental radiology, and others by 52%, 47%, 46%, 34%, 69%, and 31%, respectively, for the 7 y period. More than 94.5% of radiation workers received annual doses less than the public dose limit (1 mSv) in 2016. Workers engaged in nuclear medicine and interventional radiology activities were found to receive relatively more dose than the other fields of practice. Diagnostic radiology makes the dominant contribution of 68% to the collective effective dose of 73,641.3 person mSv received by 211,613 radiation workers in medical practices in 2016. The observation of workers in medical practices receiving well below the recommended occupational dose limit (20 mSv) could be a result of an improvement in radiation protection practices in the medical field in China. However, it is still necessary to control and manage the workplace and radiation workers to avoid unnecessary exposures, in particular for the workers engaged in nuclear medicine and interventional radiology activities.

Occupational radiation exposure dose and associated factors among radiology personnel in Eastern Amhara, Ethiopia

“…In other words, radiology personnel using short exposure time and wait some minute in exposure room after exposure, which is good practice of timing, had low occupational radiation exposure dose. This result is consistent with other studies done in Ethiopia [ 22 ] and other countries like Zambia [ 16 ], Malawi [ 30 ], India [ 35 ], Japan [ 36 ], and China [ 31 ]. The possible explanations might be related to effective practice of timing, which could improve the quality of primary radiation, limit the production of scattered radiation, and reduce the exposure of radiology personnel to scattered radiation.…”

“…It was 3 times higher than the studies done in China (0.35 mSv) [ 31 ], and Ireland (0.32 mSv) [ 32 ], 2.5 times higher than the study done in Saudi Arabia (0.41 mSv) [ 23 ], 1.2 to 2.6 times higher than the studies done in UAE (0.39–0.83 mSv) [ 33 ], and 1.3 to 3.5 times higher than the studies in done in Pakistan (0.29–0.80 mSv) [ 34 ]. The possible reasons for low annual deep dose equivalent in these countries might be due to: good practice of radiation protection, adequate number of skilled radiology personnel, the quality of x-ray machines, and the availability of machine spare parts, the availability as well as the quality of radiation protection barriers, education and training.…”

Assessment of Occupational Exposure in Medical Practice in the Region of Hohhot, China, for the Period 2004–2020

“…The occupational exposure to workers in interventional radiology and nuclear medicine was significantly higher than that of workers in other occupational categories, likely because of the working characteristics of near-source operations, including operations in the radiation field and the sub-packaging and injection of radioactive drugs (Deng et al 2019; Inaba et al 2021).…”

“…The relative concentration of tertiary medical institutions in Hohhot appears to have led to a decrease in average annual effective doses of radiation workers relative to those in other league cities in Inner Mongolia, consistent with the analysis results of annual individual effective radiation exposure doses among different levels of medical institutions in China (Chen et al 2021). The annual individual effective radiation exposure dose of medical radiation workers in Hohhot from 2009 to 2018 was higher than the national average level (0.296–0.730 mSv) (Deng et al 2019, 2020). The occupational exposure level from medical practice in Hohhot was higher than that in Poland (0.51 mSv) (Wasek et al 2012) and Ghana (0.69 mSv) (Hasford et al 2011) and much higher than that in European countries (0.06 mSv) (ESOREX Platform 2013) over the same period.…”

Cohort study protocol: investigating the impact of occupational radiation exposure on chronic non-communicable diseases among interventional radiology and nuclear medicine radiation workers - the chongqing radiation workers cohort study (CRWs)

“…Low-dose radiation is associated with diseases With the growing popularity of interventional radiology and nuclear medicine in the medical eld, professionals in these areas are exposed to higher radiation doses compared to those involved in routine radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy [1][2][3]. The radiation doses impacting the radiation-sensitive organs in these individuals may lead to deterministic effects, and prolonged exposure to low-dose radiation environments signi cantly increases the risk of developing speci c cancers, as previously documented [4][5][6].…”