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Occupational radiation exposure can occur due to various human activities, including the use of radiation in medicine. Occupationally exposed personnel surpassing 7.4 millions, and respresent the biggest single group of employees who are exposed to artificial radiation sources at work. This study compares the occupational radiation dose levels for 145 workers in four different hospitals located in the Aseer region in Saudi Arabia. The occupational exposure was quantified using thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLD-100). The levels of annual occupational exposures in targeted hospitals were calculated and compared with the levels of the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) Safety Standards. An average yearly cumulative dose for the two consecutive years. The average, highest and lowest resulted occupational doses under examination in this work is 1.42, 3.9 mSv and 0.72 for workers in various diagnostic radiology procedures. The resulted annual effective dose were within the IAEA approved yearly dose limit for occupational exposure of workers over 18, which is 20 mSv. Staff should be monitored on a regular basis, according to current practice, because their annual exposure may surpass 15% of the annual effective doses., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Staff occupational radiation exposure is limited to 20 mSv annually to preclude tissue reaction and lower risk of cancer effect. Staff occupational exposure arises during the preparation, injection, and scanning of the patients. Recent studies reported that nuclear medicine personnel might exceed the annual dose limit in high workload and poor radiation protection circumstances. Therefore, an accurate estimation of the annual dose limit is recommended. The goal of this research is to calculate the cumulative external effective dose (mSv) per year for nuclear medicine physicians, technologists, and nurses at SPECT/CT department. A total of 15 staff worked in the nuclear medicine department at King Saud Medical City (KSMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were evaluated for the last six years. 99m Tc is used more frequently for most of the patients. The procedures include renal, cardiac scintigraphy procedures. Staff dose was quantified using calibrated thermoluminecnt dosimeters (TLD-100) with an automatic TLD reader (Harshaw 6600). Exposure to ionizing radiation was evaluated in terms of deep doses (Hp(10) were evaluated. The overall average and standard deviation of the external doses for nuclear medicine physicians, technologists' and nurses were 1.8 ± 0.7, 1.9 ± 0.6, 2.0 ± 0.9, 2.2 ± 0.8, 6.0 ± 2.8, and 3.6 ± 1.3 for the years 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019, and 2020, respectively. Technologists and nurses received higher doses of compared to the nuclear medicine physicians. Technologists and nurses involved in radionuclide preparation, patients' injection, and image acquisition. Staff annual exposure is below the annual dose limits; however, this external dose is considered high compared to the current workload., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Occupational exposure to ionizing radiation of medical personnel is very common at radiology and nuclear medicine departments. Strict regulations and guidelines for the exposure of staff working in such departments were regulated by international authorities such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) as well as national protocols. In order to reduce stochastic effects, for example, radiation induced carcinogenesis, the exposure of staff working at nuclear medicine department should be maintained at levels lower than 20 mSv per year or 100 mSv in five years. The objective of this study is to measure staff radiation dose at four radiology departments in the south region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Exposures received by a total of 106 staff working at the radiology department were monitored for two consecutive years using calibrated Thermoluminecnt dosimeters (LiF:Mg:Ti (TLD-100). Exposure was then quantified in terms of deep dose: Hp (10). The TLD signal was obtained using an automatic TLD reader (Harshaw 6600). The overall annual dose for staff was 1.4 ± 0.37 (0.67–8.74). The study revealed that the annual radiation exposure in the four-radiology department is below the annual dose limits. However, staff doses could be reduced if proper radiation protection are followed. • Staff annual radiation dose were assessed for radiology technologists for two consecutive years. • Occupational doses were quantified with LiF: Mg, Ti (TLD-100). • 90% of monitored staff received an annual occupational dose below 2.0 mSv. • Radiology technologists are well protected against occupational exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]