Estimation of concentrations and committed effective doses from urine samples of nuclear medicine workers in Korea due to inhalation of I-131

Abstract

The samples of the urine for 25 persons working in Korea nuclear medicine of the three major Korean hospitals were chosen for performing this study and I-131 concentrations in them were measured with high purity germanium detector. The results of the concentrations showed that the arithmetic mean of the sample was to be 66.5 Bqkg^-1 and the range of them to be varied from ND (non detected) to 5,045 Bqkg^-1. It is inferred that the worker taking the highest concentration has chronically breathed the contaminated air during the distribution job of I-131 source. The committed effective doses for those were also estimated based on the measured concentrations by using IMBA software. It showed that the arithmetic mean of the dose due to inhalations of I-131 was to be 0.275 mSv and the range of them to be from 0 to 4.74 mSv. The committed effective doses were to be within 2 mSv except for the worker for distribution of I-131 ampule.