Ionizing Radiation Incidence Causes
There is world wide concern about ionizing radiation hazard in medical treatments of cancer and increasing human errors in cancer radiation therapy. My experience as Radiological health physicist with cancer research hospital at Gwalior, MP, India exposed many problems in managing cancer radiation therapy and cancer diagnostic facilities such as X-rays and CT-Scan.
- Incidences that were not reported: Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 radioactive sources in tele-therapy machines did not shut the exposure and the patient was over exposed and resulted in death. This incident was prior to my joining the hospital, was reported by one of the operating staff member.
2. There was no trained and certified Radiological health physicist in the hospital for years and yet the radiation therapy and diagnostic x-ray and CT-scans machines were operated without supervision of a certified Radiological Health Physicist.
3. Hospital though had radiation dose calibration instruments like ion chamber with working measurement instrument, it wasn't used for several years to calibrate the system or even to know if the radiation therapy units were at all functional.
4. Family members of the patient under treatment were made to sit very close to radiation therapy room where radiation dose levels were very high during radiation therapy machine operations. Among family members there were number of young women and children who were also receiving high radiation dose.
5. There was single exit point of the radiation therapy room where Cobalt-60 machine was placed and the very close to the door were the power distribution point for AC and many open cables as fire hazard with no other escape route. There was dry chemical power (DCP) fire fighting machine which couldn't be used on electrical fire and in close room to cause serious suffocation to operators and patients.
6. Cobalt-60 therapy machine operators, nurse were sitting in the control room most of the time even when machine was not in use causing excessive work exposure to working staff members.
7. Concept of radiation safety was not in practice. None of the radiation workers were wearing any TLD badge. Their radiation records were not proper.
8. Cancer therapy radiation workers were also bringing hot tea in polythene carry bags and were not aware of leaching chemicals that could cause cancer to them. I donated a flask and crockery for their proper tea session and also provided then space to sit away from Radiation therapy machine when treatment wasn't going on. Radiation workers were also given radiation safety advises and knowledge of ionizing radiation caused damage to the human life.
9. It was noticed in few incidences that the radiation treatment plans were not proper as per Radiological Doctors advice for Radiation therapy plan. Radiation dose single shot of 5Gy were asked to be again certified by the doctor under dose limit barrier applied. Exposure to under 2 year child for ocular cancer was not taken up as it would have caused serious brain damage and the case was referred for accelerator proton beam therapy.
The management was cooperative and agreed to implement correct procedure and safety methods. However, there are not enough trained and certified Radiological health physicist in the country for the job available on hand. Salary offered was very low and it was like a volunteer work. I dedicated limited time of 30 days to the hospital and several refinement were made.
I am keen in Radiation Oncology, Radiation Safety and Quality, Radiation incident Audit, Incident reduction, implementation of IAEA SAFRON, American Association of Medical Physicists developed ionizing radiation safety audit procedure and related software implementation for cancer hospitals. I am a life member of Association of Medical Physicists of India. I am also trained and certified Radiological health physicist trained for 1 year by BARC, Mumbai (www.barc.gov.in/) and certified by the University of Mumbai 1974-1975. I am developing number of radiation dosimeters for online radiation dose measurement applicable for cancer radiation therapy. I will be very happy to interact with professionals working in radiation safety and quality radiation therapy in international organizations. Write to me on shyamsundertiwari(at)gmail(dot)com or visit www.sensorstechnology.com/