Issue |
Radioprotection
Volume 52, Number 1, January-March 2017
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 45 - 49 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/radiopro/2017002 | |
Published online | 05 April 2017 |
Article
Exposure of the French population to ionizing radiations from medical diagnostic procedures in 2012
IRSN, Medical Radiation Protection Unit,
BP 17,
92262
Fontenay-aux-Roses Cedex, France
⁎ Corresponding author: serge.dreuil@irsn.fr
Received:
12
October
2016
Accepted:
22
January
2017
Monitoring the exposure of the population to ionizing radiation is a European Union requirement. This article presents the exposure of the French population originating from medical diagnostic procedures performed in 2012. The number of procedures was established from a joint health insurances database. The effective dose associated with each procedure was estimated from various sources (national DRL, recent surveys, guides of procedures). The number of procedures was approximately 81.8 million, representing an average of 1247 examinations per 1000 inhabitants. The mean effective dose per inhabitant originating from medical diagnosis exposure was 1.6 mSv. When restricted to the population actually exposed, the average number of examinations was 2760 per 1000 individuals and the mean effective dose per exposed individual was 3.4 mSv. 70% of exposed individuals received less than 1 mSv. Mean individual exposure strongly increased with age: below 1 mSv before the age of 20, around 7 mSv at 75 years. 44% of the French population (49% of the women, 39% of the men) has benefited from at least one diagnosis procedure. Conventional radiology, dental radiology and computed tomography represented respectively 54%, 34% and 10.5% of the number of procedures and contributed to 18%, 0.2% and 71% of the collective effective dose, respectively. A 20% increase of the average effective dose per inhabitant was observed, when compared to the year 2007. While efforts are still needed in the optimization of delivered dose and in the harmonization of practices, whatever the imaging field, specific interest should be paid to the justification of certain examinations which have particularly increased in numbers.
Key words: radiation exposure / diagnostic imaging / population exposure
© EDP Sciences 2017
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