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BOOK REVIEW |
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| Year : 2010 | Volume
: 35
| Issue : 2 | Page : 128 |
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Text Book of Radiological Safety
R Ravichandran
Department of Radiation Oncology, Royal Hospital, Muscat, PB1331, PC111, Seeb-Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
| Date of Web Publication | 3-Apr-2010 |
Correspondence Address:
R Ravichandran
Department of Radiation Oncology, Royal Hospital, Muscat, PB1331, PC111, Seeb-Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
How to cite this article:
Ravichandran R. Text Book of Radiological Safety. J Med Phys 2010;35:128 |
The "Text Book of Radiological Safety," written by Prof. K. Thayalan, with a Foreword by Prof. G. K. Rath of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, has a full coverage of various aspects of radiological safety, updated with a lot of data quoted from various regulatory documents in this context. This is more like a hand book that could be of use as a reference material in the departments handling diagnostic X-rays and diagnostic and therapeutic applications of unsealed radioactive isotopes in the medicine and radiotherapy departments with external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy installations. A good coverage of the physical parameters and quantities found in radiological safety, basic guidelines on patients and staff radiation safety, structural requirements in the installations of different radiation-generating sources, dose limits and regulatory aspects, radiation emergencies and radioisotope waste managements, etc. are the main highlights of this text book.
The first two chapters give an introduction into the basic definitions and magnitude of radiation exposures, radiation interactions in humans and various biological effects and involved risks. Chapter 3 deals with concepts of time, distance and shielding and concepts of barriers for primary and scattered radiations from radiotherapy beams, brachytherapy, diagnostic X-rays and nuclear medicine departments. Chapter 4 explains the planning aspects of radiation installations taking in the utility and workflow aspects, which can be of help for the medical physicists to suggest floor plans and necessary discussions with architectural experts who are not conversant with intricate details. Chapter 5 deals with personnel monitoring and area-monitoring details, with a nice coverage by worked examples. Chapter 6 enumerates the quality assurance checks to be followed for diagnostic X-ray machines, mammography units and various aspects of nuclear medicine QA procedures, QA for linear accelerators and high-dose rate brachytherapy. However, the author has not included QA aspects of simulators and computed tomography machines and treatment planning systems, which are made available in all radiotherapy departments.
In Chapter 7, the author has brought out the details of the Radiation Protection Rules (RPR) 2004, Government of India, and explained the practical guidelines for implementation under a purview of the RPR very well. The regulatory control and dose-limitation aspects are well documented. Chapter 8 deals with the radiation protection achievable in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine for the staff, patients and the public. This chapter has also brought out the details of cobalt teletherapy machines, brachytherapy units and precautions to be followed during source transfer, and care to be taken to reduce fetal dose in radiotherapy patients during treatments. Chapter 9 brings out the regulatory aspects of transportation of radioactive materials, procedures to be followed during handling and documentation requirements. Chapter 10 outlines the management of radioactive wastes in terms of disposal methods and basic principles involved, limits in sewage systems and decontamination methods to be practiced. Chapter 11 gives an account of various radiation emergencies encountered in diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine and in mishandling of radiotherapy sources. Action plans in such situations and a description of the actual mishaps have been explained to bring forth an awareness. This book is aptly named as a text book, covering all practical aspects that are needed for a radiation safety expert in a hospital and a medical physicist involved in practical patient care aspects and research. The book is very well written and the author has taken a lot of care in bringing out the present-day needs in radiological safety in general and safety to personnel in particular. I am sure this book will receive good appreciation among the readers. This book will find immense use as a reference hand book for practicing clinical physicists, medical radiation technologists, radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine specialists and health administrators.
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