Radiation safety is crucial in veterinary medicine, and dosimeters play a role in protecting team members. 

All veterinary personnel who are involved with taking radiographs should be familiar with how occupational radiation exposure can affect health, as well as with how to maximize their safety and reduce the amount of radiation to which they’re exposed.

Here’s how dosimeters fit into the radiation safety picture…

What Do Dosimeters Do?

A dosimeter, or dosimetry badge/ring, is a small device that measures radiation exposure from a source of radiation outside the body over a specified period of time. Here, we’ll focus on radiographic studies. But dosimeters are also important for practices that have additional sources of ionizing radiation (CT, nuclear medicine, etc.).

The purpose of a dosimetry badge is to ensure that radiation safety protocols are effective so that a person does not receive a dangerously high level of radiation exposure. 

Radiation exposure should ALWAYS be as low as possible. However, there are recognized set limits of radiation doses that are considered acceptable for a person, below which adverse health effects are unlikely. 

This safe exposure limit varies depending on a person’s occupation (whether they are a member of the “general public” or someone who has occupational exposure to x-rays or other sources of radiation), as well as a person’s age (limits are stricter for anyone under 18), and circumstances such as pregnancy.

Dosimeters help to measure and document that radiation exposure stays below these established safety limits, both over the short term and over a lifetime.

Do Dosimeters Provide Any Radiation Shielding or Protection?

No, dosimeters are not protective against radiation in and of themselves. But they contribute to radiation safety by monitoring employee radiation exposures, which helps verify that safety protocols are effective. 

Or, if radiation exposure is high, dosimeters can uncover this problem and prompt a veterinary practice to evaluate their equipment or make appropriate changes to their radiation safety protocols.

Are Dosimeters Required? 

Although rules and specifics vary from state to state, generally speaking, YES—dosimeters are an absolute legal requirement in veterinary practices that use x-rays or other sources of ionizing radiation. This is because of potential health and safety risks for employees.

There are also legal requirements regarding sharing of this information with employees (such as providing each employee that uses a dosimeter with their yearly exposure report) and how many years the veterinary practice has to keep this information on file.

In addition to legal requirements, dosimeters are a good idea for liability reasons. In case a current or former employee ever attributes a health problem to job-related radiation exposure, it’s best to have dosimetry records available to show that radiation exposure was at a level considered safe. 

For this reason, some veterinary hospitals obtain dosimeters for all employees, even those that spend minimal (or zero) time performing radiographs. Although using dosimeters only for team members involved in taking x-ray studies is probably more common.

How Often Are Dosimeters Monitored?

Monthly and quarterly are common frequencies for processing or reading dosimeters. But the specific timeline for how often dosimeters need to be checked varies between states. 

So, prior to ordering yearly badges, double-check if your state is one that requires checking dosimeters quarterly or monthly. And consider what would work best for your hospital. More frequent monitoring could allow for prompt changes to safety protocols when needed.

What Happens If Radiation Exposure Is High?

If the exposure measured on a dosimeter is higher than expected, measures should be taken to reduce radiation exposure to that employee(s).

This could mean re-evaluating safety protocols, including the principles of shielding, distancing, and minimizing exposure time.

For example, maybe lead aprons or gloves have cracks in the shielding and need to be replaced. Or, maybe team members need to be educated and monitored to ensure they are wearing the right gear every time.

Distancing from the machine (the radiation source) could be achieved through hands-free restraint. And minimizing exposure time could be achieved through improving technique so there are fewer retakes, or by rotating staff who take x-rays so the same person isn’t exposed all the time.

With everything we know about radiation safety, it’s important to implement dosimeters in veterinary practice—both to meet legal requirements, and to help ensure safety protocols are effective. In the next article, we’ll discuss more details about how dosimeters are used in a veterinary practice. Stay tuned!

Written by: Dr. Tammy Powell, DVM

See our badges here: https://newvetequipment.com/veterinary-dosimeter-badge