Soto J, Gómez J
Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
Health Phys. 1999 Apr;76(4):398-401. doi: 10.1097/00004032-199904000-00008.
Recent international recommendations have included exposure to natural radiation as one of the sources to monitor in certain occupationally exposed groups. Among those mentioned are workers in thermal spas, who may be exposed to high radiation doses due to the high concentration of radon in the indoor air of the spa. This paper presents the methodology and the results of an evaluation of radiation doses to the staff in different thermal spas in Spain. Different series of samples were collected and measurements made for the radon concentrations in water in 54 spas and in air in 20 spas. In six of the latter group, the air radon concentration was studied in different working areas occupied by the employees. The radon concentrations in water were between <2 and 775 x 10(3) Bq m(-3). The radon concentrations in air were between <10 and 5,200 Bq m(-3). The latter were used to estimate the dose received by each occupational group in the spa by taking into account the radon concentration in their main working area. By means of an exposure-dose conversion factor of 1.43 Sv per J h m(-3), the estimated effective doses were found to lie between 1 and 44 mSv y(-1). This upper limit is higher than the recommended annual limit of 20 mSv y(-1) for an occupational dose.
最近的国际建议已将接触天然辐射列为某些职业暴露群体需要监测的来源之一。其中提到的有温泉浴场的工作人员，由于温泉浴场室内空气中氡的浓度很高，他们可能会受到高辐射剂量的照射。本文介绍了对西班牙不同温泉浴场工作人员辐射剂量进行评估的方法和结果。收集了不同系列的样本，并对54个温泉浴场水中的氡浓度和20个温泉浴场空气中的氡浓度进行了测量。在后者中的6个温泉浴场，对员工所在的不同工作区域的空气中氡浓度进行了研究。水中的氡浓度在<2至775×10³Bq m⁻³之间。空气中的氡浓度在<10至5200 Bq m⁻³之间。通过考虑各职业群体主要工作区域的氡浓度，利用这些数据来估算他们在温泉浴场中所接受的剂量。通过每焦耳·小时·立方米1.43 Sv的暴露剂量转换因子，发现估计的有效剂量在1至44 mSv y⁻¹之间。这个上限高于职业剂量建议的每年20 mSv y⁻¹的限值。
