OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO IONISING RADIATION IN MEDICAL FACILITIES AND POSSIBLE HEALTH IMPLICATIONS: A CASE STUDY IN RADIOLOGICAL OR X-RAY DEPARTMENTS IN SOME SELECTED HEALTH FACILITIES IN GHANA

This study assessed the risk level of employees who routinely work in x-ray units in ten (10) different hospitals in three regions of Ghana. Questionnaire was used to assess employees and employers safety procedures in the performance of their duties. Occupational doses were measured for three months and average monthly dose determined and extrapolated to estimate annual dose for each employee and then compared with internationally recommended limit. Regression analysis was used to establish the relationship existing between doses received by employees in a hospital against patients’ attendance rate. Risk models fitted for the Life Span Study (LSS) of atomic bomb victims Hiroshima and Nagasaki were used to estimate the risk of Leukaemia and digestive cancers. The results obtained showed that lower proportion of employees who did not wear their Thermoluminiscence Dosimeters (TLD) always, suffered delay return of TLDs from reading institution while fewer hospital visited did not have medical physicists. The work established a rather insignificant correlation between employees’ dosage received and patients’ attendance rates with R2 = 0.142. It was also revealed that all subjects monitored have their estimated annual dose far below the internationally recommended limit of 50 mSv. A mean of 276 µSv (98% Class Interval 257,295) per month obtained in this study put virtually all subjects monitored at no risk as the comparison of this result with works done by others revealed a less than 15 days loss of life expectancy. The Probability of Causation (PC) for leukaemia and digestive cancers was also extremely small in orders of 10-5% to induce any of these cancers in the subjects monitored.