Determining the possible health effects of ionizing radiation on health personnel working with ionizing radiation sources in a university hospital in Ankara

This study aims to determine possible health effects of ionizing radiation on health personnel working with radiation sources in a university hospital.This study is a cross sectional study performed in the Gazi University Faculty of Medicine Hospital in Ankara during November 2009- November 2010. The participant of the study was 242 people with radiation effect and working in the Department of Radiology, Cardiology, Radiation Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, Neurosurgery and the division of the Pediatric Cardiology in the Gazi University Faculty of Medicine Hospital but 231 were successful (95.5%).The majority of the study participants are physicians (40.7%). The majority of the participants don?t have any previously disease diagnosed. %67.1 of the participants don?t have any complains during the study.The participants told that they have been working with ionizing radiation related works for 7.7±6.5 years.64.1% of the participants told that he had not used personal preservative clothing, 13.1% told that dosimeter measurements had expressed over the limits at least once during the last year, 1.7% told that he had a radiation accident and 27.7% told that he exposed to diagnostic or therapeutic radiation during the last year.1.6% of the women participated in the study, declared that she had at least one death-birth, 7.1% had at least one unwanted miscarriage. 0.4% of the participants reported that he had child with disability. Specialty was detected in 5.2% in hand skin examination and in 7.7% in blood-lymphatic system examination. No pathology related to ionizing radiation was found in fundus examination.Limit excess in last year?s dosimeter measurements was reported in 33.3% of people having specialty in hand-skin examination, in 20.0% of people having specialty in blood and lymphatic system examination, 33.3% of people having pathologic blood test results, in 11.1% of women having unwanted miscarriage, in 5.0% of women having menstrual irregularity.Based on the results of this study, taking necessary precautions would be appropriate for the subsequent years to be more informed and to minimize the possible effects of ionizing radiation. To emphasize the importance of the issue to the health workers, organizing training programs would be a good starting point for measures to be taken.