Extremity doses of nuclear medicine personnel: a concern

Nearly one in five workers in nuclear medicine is likely to receive more than the legal dose limit for the skin of 500 mSv per year according to a recently completed ORAMED study. ORAMED (Optimization of RAdiation protection of MEDical staff) was a European FP7 project which aimed to develop methodologies for better assessing and reducing the exposure to radiation of personnel working in interventional radiology and cardiology and nuclear medicine. One of the goals of the project was to determine extremity doses of workers in nuclear medicine during the preparation and administration of radiopharmaceuticals. Six countries participated in the study, and large numbers of procedures using 99mTc (n=335), 18F (n=306) and 90Y (n=127) were monitored. In stark contrast with the finding of too high extremity doses is the general lack of attention in nuclear medicine paid to extremity dosimetry. The main purpose of this contribution is therefore to emphasize that extremity exposure is a real concern needing the attention of the professional societies and the technical and medical staff. In addition, some guidance is provided in measuring and lowering the extremity dose.