Radiation Exposure from Work-Related Medical X-Rays at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

Details

• Personal Author:
  Daniels, Robert D. ; Kubale, Travis L. ; Spitz HB
• Description:
  Background: Previous analyses suggest that worker radiation dose may be significantly increased by routine occupational X-ray examinations. Medical exposures are investigatedfor 570 civilian workers employed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS) at Kittery, Maine. The research objective was to determine the radiation exposure contribution of work-related chest X-rays (WRX) relative to conventional workplace radiation sources. Methods: Methods were developed to estimate absorbed doses to the active (hematopoietic) bone marrow from X-ray examinations and workplace exposures using data extracted from worker dosimetry records (8,468) and health records (2,453). Dose distributions were examined for radiation and non-radiation workers. Results: Photofluorographic chest examinations resulted in 82% of the dose from medical sources. Radiation workers received 26% of their collective dose from WRX and received 66% more WRX exposure than non-radiation workers. Conclusions: WRX can result in a significant fraction of the total dose, especially for radiation workers who were more likely to be subjected to routine medical monitoring. Omission of WRX from the total dose is a likely source of bias that can lead to dose category misclassification and may skew the epidemiologic dose-response assessment for cancers induced by the workplace. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Occupational Health Radiation Radiation Dosimeters Radiography Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: X-rays Bone Marrow Chest-X-rays Dose Dose-response Dosimetry Medical Surveillance Occupational Exposure Photofluorography Radiation Radiation-exposure Radiation-facilities Statistical-analysis X-ray-absorption

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  206-216
• Volume:
  47
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026272
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2005 Mar; 47(3):206-216
• Contact Point Address:
  Robert D. Daniels, Health Physicist, 5555 Ridge Ave., R-44, Cincinnati, OH 45213
• Email:
  RTD2@CDC.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d08fae08adb4b83a9f73f281f9b160b2ad39022b389c668d48ffd6b7080749df9b2ed1eaeb7ab57175c41c74d656c22db29f23b718ce13bc842ffca8e28f70fd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/197252/cdc_197252_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 288.05 KB ]