Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Radiation
This publication may be freely reproduced, except for advertising, endorsement or commercial purposes. The information is current at 13 August 1998. Please acknowledge the source as HSE.
The Central Index of Dose Information is operated by the National Radiological Protection Board under contract to the Health and Safety Executive.
The Central Index of Dose Information (CIDI) is the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE's) national database of occupational exposure to ionising radiation. It is operated under contract by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB). CIDI receives annually from Approved Dosimetry Services (ADS) summaries of radiation doses recorded for employees designated as classified persons in the United Kingdom. This document is the twelfth CIDI Summary of Annual Statistics to be published.
All the data provided to HSE by ADS for the purposes of CIDI are treated as confidential in respect of individual persons and employers. The computer files are protected by various safeguards (Registration No CO607047). The style of data presentation used here maintains this confidentiality. The data given are as held on the database on 13 August 1998.
Enquiries on this document should be addressed in the first instance to:
Mr M K Williams
Health and Safety Executive
Health Directorate
Radiation Protection Policy Unit B6
Rose Court
2 Southwark Bridge
London SE1 9HS
1 The HSE Central Index of Dose Information (CIDI) receives annual summaries of radiation doses recorded for employees designated as classified persons under the Ionising Radiations Regulations 19851 (IRR 85). These annual summaries are required from Approved Dosimetry Services (ADS) which operate in the United Kingdom under IRR 85. Separate information is also sent to CIDI by an ADS whenever an employee terminates employment.
2 Approval to make assessments of doses to classified persons and/or to keep records of such assessments is granted to suitable dosimetry services by HSE. It is a condition of approval for dose record-keeping that annual dose summaries should be sent to CIDI, thus fulfilling the statutory duty on employers under IRR 85 to make arrangements with their ADS to send such data to HSE. The most common form of dose assessment is from measurements by an external body dosemeter of the thermoluminescent (TLD) or film type but ADS may be approved for other kinds of measurement, such as bio-assay, whole or partial body monitoring for internal radionuclides and personal or static air monitoring. The resulting assessments of dose are included in dose records.
3 CIDI has several functions:
4 CIDI was established on 1 January 1987. The functions and operations of CIDI are described in the Report of the Working Party on the Central Index of Dose Information (NRPB-M92)2 and associated Reference Manual (NRPB-M176).3 The first year for which data were required was 1986. Annual summaries have been published for the years 1986 to 1996.4-14 This is the twelfth annual summary. It is intended that separate reports will be published periodically on trends in annual statistics, such as that covering dose data recorded for the years 1986 to 199115 and the second report covering the period 1990 to 199616.
5 The occupational categories used in the presentation of CIDI data are given in the Appendix. Where more than one of these categories is applicable, a single category is selected that refers to the largest proportion of the dose.
6 The number of classified persons for whom records were kept in 1997 was 43658.
7 The specification of the information required in 1996 for CIDI purposes was given in part 3 of the HSE Requirements for Approval.15
8. The data in the tables are as reported to CIDI by ADS; no changes, additions or deletions have been made. Table A2 is an additional table derived from Table A1 by substituting pro-rata dose estimates for notional doses. (See paragraph 13).
9 The data within the various dose ranges of the tables are expressed in millisieverts (mSv). However, the mean doses and collective doses within the tables are rounded to the nearest 0.1 mSv and 1 man mSv, respectively and values given as a percentage have been rounded to the nearest 0.1% (1% in Table B1). The data are presented in a style corresponding to that of the previous annual summaries.
10 Section A presents the main dose information in terms of occupational category and whole body dose, which comprises effective dose equivalent (EDE) from external exposure to ionising radiation and/or committed effective dose equivalent (CEDE) from internal exposure. Separate data are given for the neutron component of EDE and for the CEDE component due to radon-222 and its short-lived daughters. Table A5 only contains data from those ADS that report CEDE separately. Section B is devoted to distribution of whole body dose (EDE + CEDE) by age and sex according to occupational category, and Section C is concerned with dose equivalent (DE) and/or committed dose equivalent (CDE) to specified organs or tissues in terms of occupational category.
11 Where no assessment of dose is available for any period of work as a classified person an estimation of the dose for that period must be made by the employer and entered in the record in lieu of an assessed dose. No distinction has been made in the data between assessed and estimated doses. If no adequate information exists to make an estimation, the employer must authorise the ADS to enter a notional dose in the record for that period (but see paragraph 13).
12. The data in this summary include doses for classified persons who were monitored for only part of the year or who changed their employment in radiation work during the year. For such persons there will be more than one dose summary on CIDI for the year. Table A7 shows the number of persons monitored and the mean of their reported doses in 1997; the proportion of records extending over the full year was 84%. A special check is made to minimise the possibility of double counting doses for individuals reported by more than one ADS.
13 The data submitted by ADS contain a relatively small fraction of notional doses. Notional doses are substitute dose values in the record of a person for a period when no dose assessment was available; these notional doses are based on the proportion of the relevant annual dose limit for that period. Table A1 includes notional doses. However, such values are rarely representative of the likely doses to persons. For that reason a pro-rata dose estimate for the period of each notional dose has been calculated and entered in Table A2 by the CIDI statistics programme. A pro-rata dose estimate is based on the doses assessed for the person during the rest of the year. This is a well established convention in the presentation of dose record data and one which gives a more realistic substitute dose value for dose analysis and epidemiological purposes. This substitution applies only to the data during their statistical analysis by CIDI and is not applied to the basic data on the CIDI database or to the source data kept by the ADS, which remain unchanged.
14 CIDI protocol does not require the submission of organ/tissue dose data (Part C) if doses are less than 10% of the pro rata dose limit. Nevertheless, some ADS have reported doses below this level and these have been included in the tables. This means there may appear to be discrepancies between certain tables (e.g. Tables A5 and C7-C9).
15 Where a zero dose category is shown in the Tables, this includes both the classified persons who were monitored but for whom no measurable dose was recorded in the year and persons who were not monitored but who were reported as having received no measurable dose as classified persons. In Table A3, which shows neutron doses, the zero dose category also includes zero neutron doses reported to CIDI by ADS for individuals who were not monitored for neutron dose.
16 Most classified persons were monitored for whole body radiation, ie EDE
and/or CEDE. In Table A2, where notional doses have been substituted
by a pro-rata dose estimate, the mean dose averaged over all occupational
categories was 0.9 mSv. The highest mean dose (11.7 mSv) was for the
occupational category comprising underground miners in non-coal mines, for
whom the principal source of exposure is radon-222 and its short-lived daughters
(see also Table A4). Table A2 also shows that 34.5% of classified
persons were reported as receiving no dose at all, 84% as receiving 1 mSv
or less, and 97% as receiving 5mSv or less.
17 The adjusted data in Table A2, indicate that an annual dose in excess of 15 mSv was reported for 76 persons, <1% of the number of classified persons for whom doses were reported. Table A2 shows that two classified persons had a reported whole body dose that exceeded the annual dose limit of 50 mSv, but this figure includes an incorrect reported dose which exceeded 1 Sievert. HSE has now approved a special entry to replace that incorrect dose.
8 The collective dose (Table A2) for the 43658 classified persons for whom doses were reported for 1997 was 41 man Sv.
19 Table A3 shows that a non-zero neutron dose was reported for 563 classified persons. No neutron doses in excess of 15 mSv was reported.
20 Table A4 shows doses from radon-222 and its short-lived daughters. The mean of the doses reported for 212 classified persons was 11.6 mSv. The figures are dominated by the contribution of doses reported for underground miners in non-coal mines.
21 Table B1 provides a summary of mean doses by sex. Tables B2 and
B3 show a breakdown of the number of classified persons by age and sex for
the calendar year. Tables B4 and B5 give the corresponding breakdown
of mean doses.
22 Table C1 shows that 10366 classified persons had a reported dose to
the skin greater than zero. Two classified persons were reported as having
received a skin dose in excess of 500 mSv.
24. The remaining tables in this section includes reported dose to the hands, feet and eyes, together with reported doses to internal organs.
1 Industrial radiography using permanent installations
2 Industrial radiography on site or works of engineering construction
3 Nuclear reactor operations
4 Nuclear reactor maintenance
5 Nuclear fuel fabrication
6 Nuclear fuel reprocessing
7 Radioactive waste treatment
8 Radiation protection
9 Combined with code 11
10 Application and servicing of machines producing ionising radiation (other
than those covered by other codes)
11 Application and manipulation of radioactive substances (other than those
covered by other codes)
12 Do not use (use code 52, unless another code applies)
13 Do not use
14 Transport work
15 Offshore work activities
16 Onshore drilling
17 Mining coal - underground workers (coal mining underground)
18 Mining coal - surface workers
19 Mining minerals other than coal - underground workers (non-coal mining
underground)
20 Mining minerals other than coal - surface workers
21 Not used
22 Not used
23 Not used
24 Not used
25 Dental work
26 Veterinary work
30 Medical applications - doctors
31 Medical applications - nurses
32 Medical applications - radiographers
33 Medical applications - physicists and physics technicians
34 Other medical applications
40 Quarrying
41 Academic research and teaching
42 Industrial research
51 Industrial applications not mentioned above (other industrial)
52 Others not specified above (others)
53 Nuclear decommissioning