Protection in Industrial Radiology

Until a few years ago the majority of X-ray and radium workers were engaged in the medical field, and it is natural therefore that the schemes put forward by the protection committees in various countries were largely devoted to offering detailed advice to cover the particular problems met with in this field. Since the outbreak of war there has been a rapid expansion of industrial X-ray work and it is felt in many quarters that the time has arrived for the pooling of ideas which will lead to the preparation of a detailed protective scheme for the guidance of industrial workers. The scheme of protection against radiation is fundamentally the same for industrial as for medical workers, and is based upon the following factors. (1) The amount of radiation which the body will tolerate without ill effects. This is called the “tolerance dose.” (2) Absorption of the radiation and remoteness from the source. Clinical observations made several years ago on full-time X-ray workers led to various estimates of the tol...