Personnel Protection and Fluoroscopy Safety

Sources of Exposure

Radiographers can be exposed to three kinds of radiation. The primary beam is the useful beam leaving the collimator, and no part of a worker's body should ever be placed in it. Leakage radiation escapes through the tube housing, and federal standards (21 CFR) limit it to about 1 mGy per hour at 1 m from the housing during maximum continuous operation. Scatter radiation is created when the beam interacts in the patient, mostly by Compton scattering, which makes the patient the largest source of occupational exposure. Scatter is most intense on the side where the beam enters the patient, because those photons have not yet been attenuated by the body.