Estimating the radiation dose to emergency room personnel in an event of a radiological dispersal device explosion

Abstract

A Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) is any device that releases radioactive material into the environment (e.g. Dirty Bomb). Depending on the size of the explosion, location, and the weather conditions the affected area could be several city blocks. In such an event there could be hundreds, even thousands of contaminated victims seeking medical treatment. One concern in the healthcare industry is the uncertainty of the level of radiation exposure to the healthcare providers from these contaminated patients. The intention of this study is to estimate the levels of skin contamination for victims arriving at the hospital needing conventional medical treatment. Given a skin contamination of the victim the effective dose rate to the healthcare providers can be estimated in certain scenarios. The effective dose rate will determine how long the healthcare provider would be able to care for the victims.