ANALYSIS OF HAND EXPOSURE AMONG NUCLEAR MEDICINE TECHNOLOGISTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

The increase in the amount of radioactive materials administered to patients as well as the number of procedures performed has focused attention on the issue of radiation exposure to the hands of workers in nuclear medicine departments worldwide. The study aims to estimate the equivalent doses to the hands of individuals in nuclear medicine departments in Saudi. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted for 404 annual dose records in 16 nuclear medicine departments from 2016 to 2019. The monitoring of individual doses to the hands was performed using a Harshaw ring dosemeters. During the study period, the average annual equivalent doses per handled activity ranged from 0.21 to 0.41 μSv/GBq. The estimated annual activities of radiopharmaceuticals ranged from 2 to 930 MBq per exam. The hand dose averaged over the 4-year study period was determined to be 1.81 ± 0.25 mSv. The collective annual hand dose increased by 265% from 2016 to 2019.