Social-demographic profile and dose evaluation of the radiopharmaceutical facility workers

Abstract

The main aims of this work are to identify the social-demographic profile of the workers based on stratification variables such as gender, age, and tasks performed by the workers, and to evaluate the annual collective doses of workers with potential risk of ionising radiation exposure at the workplace during the years 2004–2008. In this context, the knowledge of the workforce composition in the facility responsible for the radioisotope production and its distribution was used. The individual monitoring programme has been carried out by individual dosimeters, TLDs, and internal contamination monitoring (in vivo method). The reported doses, in the period studied, suggest that the external exposure was the main source of occupational exposure in radioisotope production and distribution areas. The internal exposure was not included in the doses estimated, because it was negligible. This study has an important exploratory character, in order to analyse possible correlations related to adverse health effects, aiming to provide directions for occupational epidemiology research.