Traditionally, airport security has relied on X-ray machines and metal detectors, though they have limitations in detecting non-metallic threats. CT scanners with advanced 3D imaging capabilities now offer a major leap forward in detection accuracy and speed.
However, airport security has become a new source of complexity for radiation workers who must wear dosimeters. CT scanner systems can significantly increase dosimeter readings during screening, creating the risk of inaccurately inflating occupational dose records with non-occupational exposure.
Digital Dosimeters Streamline Dose Monitoring
This is where dose monitoring with NetDose™ digital dosimeters makes a critical difference.
Unlike traditional passive dosimeters, which can only report total accumulated dose, NetDose™ provides hour-by-hour exposure logs, giving radiation safety officers (RSOs) the power to precisely correlate exposure with the time of day and travel activity.
This granularity allows for confident dose monitoring, excluding known non-occupational exposures, such as airport scans, from official records.
An Airport Experiment
I recently conducted a personal experiment while traveling to measure the cumulative radiation dose by monitoring hour.
In my case, the total recorded dose was 310 mrem. However, a deeper analysis showed that 305 mrem came exclusively from CT scanner exposure at airport checkpoints – leaving just 5 mrem as actual occupational dose.
That means without precision dose monitoring from NetDose™, my dose record would have overestimated my occupational exposure by more than 98%, unless a dose reconstruction was performed. But how consistent are these CT scanners used by TSA?
Dose Monitoring Across Airport Checkpoints
In measurements conducted at nine airports across 20 different checkpoints, CT scanner exposure varied dramatically, from as low as 21.1 mrem to as high as 95.4 mrem, with an average of 63.2 mrem.
Meanwhile, in four locations without CT scanners, exposures were minimal – less than 2 mrem. This wide variability illustrates a crucial point:
Without time-specific data, it would be nearly impossible to accurately estimate or subtract CT scanner exposure from a passive dosimeter.
Each airport's scanner, setup, and scanning protocol contribute to different exposure levels. Relying on assumptions or averages could easily lead to dose monitoring errors – either underreporting the true occupational dose or overreporting it by including incidental exposure.
Greater Clarity with NetDose™
With NetDose™, I was able to pinpoint the exact hour the CT scan occurred, identify the precise dose delivered, and ensure that only legitimate occupational exposure remained on the record. This level of clarity supports compliance with regulations outlined by governing bodies like the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which require that non-occupational dose not be included in occupational dose reports (10 CFR § 20.1003).
In the age of advanced security screening, proactive dosimeter management is no longer optional – it’s essential.
NetDose™ enables a smarter, more accurate approach to dose monitoring, protecting both radiation workers and the integrity of their dose records.
Get a NetDose™ Demo Today
Tour the NetDose™ user dashboard, get answers to all of your questions, and learn how down-to-hourly reporting can benefit your organization.
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