J. Valentin, UNSCEAR DATA COLLECTIONS ON MEDICAL RADIATION EXPOSURES - TRENDS AND CONSEQUENCES, Radiation protection dosimetry, 57(1-4), 1995, pp. 85-90
Citations number
NO
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology,Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging","Nuclear Sciences & Tecnology
UNSCEAR evaluates medical radiation frequencies and effective doses (E
) or effective dose equivalents (H-E) at four health care levels (I =
industrialised countries, IV = poor developing countries). The 1993 Re
port is fairly complete for levers I and II. Effective doses for speci
fic procedures may differ from effective dose equivalents by a factor
of 2, but for entire practices E and H-E are similar. For most X ray e
xaminations, doses at level I decrease but computed tomography (CT) do
ses are increasing, resulting in an overall annual per caput H-E of 1
mSv. Doses at levels II, In and IV are 0.1, 0.1 and 0.04 mSv (worldwid
e average 0.3 mSv). For nuclear medicine, the annual per caput H-E is
0.09, 0.008, 0.008 and 0.008 mSv at levels I-IV (worldwide average 0.0
3 mSv). For the first time, UNSCEAR now also estimates effective doses
in radiotherapy (excluding dose to target). These are 0.7, 0.2, 0.03
and 0.02 mSv annually per caput at levels I-IV (average 0.3 mSv) for t
ele- and brachytherapy, much less for therapeutic nuclear medicine (av
erage 0.002 mSv). These doses cannot be directly compared to diagnosti
c doses, but therapy should not be disregarded in dose statistics. UNS
CEAR draws no radiation protection conclusions. However, its data sugg
est that attention should be paid to CT, to paediatric X ray examinati
ons, to repeated X ray examinations of small subsets of populations, t
o fluoroscopy and to choice of diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals in deve
loping countries.