title: A small, multi-element fingertip dosimeter for beta radiation.
abstract: Many occupations involve potential exposures, directly or indirectly, to sources of beta radiation. The region of highest exposure, in many cases, will be the extremities and in particular the fingertips of people handling beta sources. Because current extremity dosimeters can significantly underestimate beta doses to the fingertips, an improved fingertip beta dosimeter was developed. The dosimeter employs a multi-element, multi-filter concept by stacking four or five thin (0.13 mm) LiF-Teflon TLDs to form the beta detector element. The entire dosimeter is approximately 1 mm thick, flexible and rugged enough for field use without interference of the user's manual dexterity. The fingertip dosimeter provides data for determining the beta energy of each exposure. The beta energy can be used to determine the TLD correction factor for converting the TLD output to beta dose. The data can be used to reconstruct the beta depth dose curve and the depth dose curve can be used to calculate the beta dose in tissue at 7 mg cm-2, for legal reporting purposes, or at any other desired depth within the range of the beta radiation. Relationships between the effective mass absorption coefficient and beta energy and between the beta correction factor and beta energy were determined for use in this study. Beta sources were fabricated for these studies, and an extrapolation chamber was used to determine reference beta doses. Tests of the fingertip dosimeter were performed by exposing it to single beta sources and to multiple beta sources. The dosimeter should be useful for monitoring exposures to beta energies ranging from 0.29-2.5 MeV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27514.
authors.forename: N W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Couch
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hamrick
mesh_terms: D001610:Beta Particles; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D013819:Thermoluminescent Dosimetry / Q000295:instrumentation*