Occupational Exposure of Workers in Industrial Radiography at Selected Sites in Rivers State

Assessment of radiological health hazard in industrial radiography practice in five (5) selected sites in Port Harcourt and its environs was carried out, using Digilert 200 Nuclear Radiation monitor and GPS 72H Garmin Geographical Positioning System. The mean exposure rates for the facilities (A, B, C, D & E) were 5.15mR/h respectively. The mean absorbed dose rates were 44684nGy/h respectively. Estimated average annual Effective dose equivalent obtained for outdoor exposures stood at 68.5mSv/y for all the facilities visited. The mean excess lifetime cancer risk calculated for these facilities were 239.7 x 10-3 respectively. The radiological parameters calculated for these facilities had values that were higher than the individual world permissible ICRP limit of 20mSv or 50mSv averaged over 5years. The Annual effective dose calculated for individual workers were lower than world standards while the excess lifetime cancer risks were slightly higher. The calculated organ doses show that the Testes have the highest doses while the liver recorded the least. The overall results from the study indicates that workers are exposed to doses exceeding limits, therefore employers and other stake holders should ensure that radiation workers are adequately trained, strict adherence to work procedures should be complied to, adequate shielding, optimization of distance, wearing of appropriate PPE and use of collimators should be embraced, inorder to keep doses as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA).