Risk perception of ionising radiation among hospital personnel

Perception of radiation risks has been studied in various contexts (industrial, medical, natural, etc.) by several opinion surveys reported in the literature, particularly in Belgium. This paper is focused on the study of risk perception among medical staff (doctors, nurses, technicians, hospital physicists) professionally exposed to ionising radiation. A dedicated questionnaire was developed and completed in Dutch or French by 81 professionals from five major hospitals in Belgium. The results show that almost half of the respondents perceived the risks due ionising radiation in their working environment as low or very low, while a third perceive these risks as average risks. The risks from medical X-rays for an ordinary citizen of Belgium are perceived lower by the hospital staff population than by the general population. Ionising radiation risks account for about one third of the perceived job risk. However, the non-nuclear job-related risks are almost equally important in explaining the perception of the overall job-related risk. Furthermore, the more the respondents use the protection equipment, the lower is their risk perception. Having a safer behaviour likely leads to a feeling of increased safety and controllability of the risk, and thus, a lower (personal) risk perception of ionising radiation risks.