Impact of radioactive releases from hospitals to the public and the environment

An integrated methodology is presented to dynamically calculate dose rates to people and the wildlife from hospital-released applied 18F, 123I, 131I, 153Sm, 99mTc and 201Tl reaching the environment to rivers through water treatment plants (WTPs), developed under the EC project SINFONIA. Exposures to fish, crustaceans, molluscs, macroalgae and phyto/zooplankton) arising from WTP discharges to rivers were assessed using the bespoke biokinetic model D-DAT, re-developed and parameterised for the freshwater environment. Exposures to WTP workers and to people from agricultural practices were assessed using a newly developed fractionation model that describes WTP processes. The calculated doses to people and the environment are very low, but further assessment effort is required as radiopharmaceutical use increases and diversifies, resulting in novel radionuclides and assessment pathways.