ORAU TEAM Dose Reconstruction Project for NIOSH

Document No. ORAUT-TKBS-0041 Revision No. 01 Effective Date: 06/02/2009 Page 40 of 89
a. Based on ORAUT (2005a).
The dose to the skin is a function of the location of the cancer site on the body as indicated in Table 3-
2.
Table 3-2. Annual organ doses to the skin from the assumed annual medical PA chest X-ray.
Annual dose Annual Annual dose
(rem) dose (rem) (rem)
Skin area
1957–1969 1970–1985 1985–present
Back and sides of chest to iliac crest, back of
shoulders, back and sides of neck, upper arms,
elbows, forearms, and palms and backs of hands
2.70E-01 N/A N/A
Back and sides of chest from base of neck to lowest
rib, back of shoulders
N/A 1.35E-01 7.00E-02
Face and front of neck 6.40E-03 3.20E-03 3.90E-03
Front of chest (to iliac crest), front of shoulders 5.90E-03 N/A N/A
Front of chest from base of neck to lowest rib, front of
shoulders
N/A 2.94E-03 2.39E-03
Back and sides of head, ears, buttocks 2.70E-02 N/A N/A
Back and sides of head and neck, ears, buttocks,
upper arms, elbows, forearms, and hands
N/A 1.35E-02 7.00E-03
Front lower abdomen from iliac crest to pubis 5.90E-04 N/A N/A
Front lower abdomen from lowest rib to pubis N/A 2.94E-04 2.39E-04
Thighs to knees 7.70E-05 3.88E-05 2.75E-05
Knees and below 2.80E-05 1.42E-05 1.00 E-05
The frequency of medical X-rays should be based on the frequency of routine physical examinations
as provided in the employee’s records. One PA chest X-ray should be assumed to have been
provided along with each routine physical, even though, as stated above, the routine physical records
will probably not indicate that the employee received an X-ray. If the frequency of routine physical
exams is not provided in the employee records, the one PA chest X-ray should be assumed to have
been given during a prehire physical, an annual physical, and at termination. If there is indication that
the employee worked regularly with beryllium, then two PA chest X-rays should be assigned each
year.
The PA chest X-ray values in Table 6-5 of ORAUT-OTIB-0006 (ORAUT 2005a) can be assigned as
an overestimating approach by multiplying the values by an uncertainty factor of 1.3, represented as a
constant distribution. For assignment of a best estimate, the values can be entered as the mean of a
normal distribution with a standard deviation of 30%. All medical X-ray doses should be assigned as
an acute exposure to photons with energies from 30 to 250 keV.