OPERATIONAL DOSE LIMITS

Arvind kumar gupta

Medical physicist
All India institute of medical sciences jodhpur
PRINCIPLES OF RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION

 Principles of radiological protection are.

-Justification of Practice
-Optimization of Practice
-Dose Limitations
JUSTIFICATION OF PRACTICE

 Principle emphasizes that all applications of

radiation should be justified.
 The total detriment from a proposed practice
involving exposure to radiation should be less
than the expected benefit. For example the use of
radiation in medical, industrial, agricultural and
some research applications can be justified.
OPTIMIZATION OF PROTECTION
 Implementation of protection measure calls for
value judgement.
 The greater the level of protection, the higher the
degree of safety achieved.
-Same time, greater levels of protection would
involve expenditure, which may reduce the ultimate
value of the practice.
 Nuclear Medicine Laboratories.
 don't call for additional structural shielding for
assuring prescribed degree of safety except where
large activities are handled/stored and that can be
provided in the form of local lead shielding.
 However, if one proceeds on the premises that by
providing additional structural shielding against
radiation, a greater degree safety may be achieved.
DOSE LIMITATION
 Reduce the magnitude of the risks associates with a
justified practice limits on individual doses are
established to prevent the occurrence of
deterministic effects and minimize the likelihood
of stochastic effects.
 The monitoring of these limits should take into

account of doses generated by external sources and

those produced by the intake of the
radionuclides into the body.
DOSE LIMITS APPLICABLE
 Workers.
 Public.
 Student.
 Occupational Exposure of Women
DOSE LIMITS FOR RADIATION WORKERS
 ICRP has ensured that, for a continued exposure
at that level, the estimated risk is not
unacceptable.
 limit to the effective dose of 20 mSv per year
averaged over 5 years (100 mSv in 5 years), with
further provision that the effective dose should
not exceed 50 mSv in any single year.
 The 5 year period refers to a discrete 5 year
calendar period.
 It is implicit that the dose constraint for
optimisation (e.g. planning of installation) should
not exceed 20 mSv in a year.
 Separate equivalent dose limits are needed for
these tissues.
 The annual limits are 150 mSv for the lens.
 500 mSv for the skin, averaged over any 1 cm2
regardless of the area exposed.
DOSE LIMIT
 The limit prescribed by Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board is 30mSv in a year.
 Averaged over areas of no more than any 1 cm2
regardless of the area exposed. The nominal
depth is 7.0 mg cm2.
 Averaged over areas of the skin not exceeding
about 100 cm2.
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE OF WOMEN
 The basis for the control of occupational exposure of
women who are not pregnant is the same as that for men
and the commission recommends no special dose limits
for women in general.
 Once pregnancy has been declared, the conceptus should
be protected by applying a supplementary equivalent
dose limit, to the surface of the woman’s abdomen,
(lower trunk) of 2 mSv for the remainder period of
pregnancy and by limiting the intake of radionuclides to
about 1/20 (0.05) of ALI.
APPRENTICES AND STUDENTS
 No occupational exposure is permitted below the
age of 18 years.
 For students between 16 and 18years of age, the
recommended limits for effective dose are
5mSv,equivalent dose to lens 50mSv and to the
skin or the extremities, 150 mSv.
 These doses are about 30% of the dose limits for
occupational exposures for adults.
DOSE LIMITS TO MEMBERS OF PUBLIC
 the limit for public exposure is an effective dose
of 1 mSv in a year. However, in special
circumstances, a higher value of effective dose
could be allowed in a single year, provided the
average over 5 years does not exceed 1 mSv per
year.
 in lens of the eye and skin, annual dose limits of
15mSv and 50 mSv respectively have been
recommended.
DOSE CONSTRAINTS FOR COMFORTERS AND VISITORS OF THE
PATIENTS

 Dose constraints have been prescribed for

comforters and visitors of the patients.
 For adults it is 5mSv and for child 1mSv.
Thank you