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Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Radiation overexposure accidents are rare but can have severe long-term health consequences. Although underreporting can be an issue, some extensive literature reviews of reported radiation overexposures have been performed and constitute a sound basis for conclusions on general trends....

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Autores principales: Coeytaux, Karen, Bey, Eric, Christensen, Doran, Glassman, Erik S., Murdock, Becky, Doucet, Christelle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4366065/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25789482
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118709
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author Coeytaux, Karen
Bey, Eric
Christensen, Doran
Glassman, Erik S.
Murdock, Becky
Doucet, Christelle
author_facet Coeytaux, Karen
Bey, Eric
Christensen, Doran
Glassman, Erik S.
Murdock, Becky
Doucet, Christelle
author_sort Coeytaux, Karen
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Radiation overexposure accidents are rare but can have severe long-term health consequences. Although underreporting can be an issue, some extensive literature reviews of reported radiation overexposures have been performed and constitute a sound basis for conclusions on general trends. Building further on this work, we performed a systematic review that completes previous reviews and provides new information on characteristics and trends of reported radiation accidents. METHODS: We searched publications and reports from MEDLINE, EMBASE, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Radiation Protection Association, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site radiation accident registry over 1980-2013. We retrieved the reported overexposure cases, systematically extracted selected information, and performed a descriptive analysis. RESULTS: 297 out of 5189 publications and reports and 194 records from the REAC/TS registry met our eligibility criteria. From these, 634 reported radiation accidents were retrieved, involving 2390 overexposed people, of whom 190 died from their overexposure. The number of reported cases has decreased for all types of radiation use, but the medical one. 64% of retrieved overexposure cases occurred with the use of radiation therapy and fluoroscopy. Additionally, the types of reported accidents differed significantly across regions. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides an updated and broader view of reported radiation overexposures. It suggests an overall decline in reported radiation overexposures over 1980-2013. The greatest share of reported overexposures occurred in the medical fields using radiation therapy and fluoroscopy; this larger number of reported overexposures accidents indicates the potential need for enhanced quality assurance programs. Our data also highlights variations in characteristics of reported accidents by region. The main limitation of this study is the likely underreporting of radiation overexposures. Ensuring a comprehensive monitoring and reporting of radiation overexposures is paramount to inform and tailor prevention interventions to local needs.
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spelling pubmed-43660652015-03-23 Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review Coeytaux, Karen Bey, Eric Christensen, Doran Glassman, Erik S. Murdock, Becky Doucet, Christelle PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Radiation overexposure accidents are rare but can have severe long-term health consequences. Although underreporting can be an issue, some extensive literature reviews of reported radiation overexposures have been performed and constitute a sound basis for conclusions on general trends. Building further on this work, we performed a systematic review that completes previous reviews and provides new information on characteristics and trends of reported radiation accidents. METHODS: We searched publications and reports from MEDLINE, EMBASE, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Radiation Protection Association, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site radiation accident registry over 1980-2013. We retrieved the reported overexposure cases, systematically extracted selected information, and performed a descriptive analysis. RESULTS: 297 out of 5189 publications and reports and 194 records from the REAC/TS registry met our eligibility criteria. From these, 634 reported radiation accidents were retrieved, involving 2390 overexposed people, of whom 190 died from their overexposure. The number of reported cases has decreased for all types of radiation use, but the medical one. 64% of retrieved overexposure cases occurred with the use of radiation therapy and fluoroscopy. Additionally, the types of reported accidents differed significantly across regions. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides an updated and broader view of reported radiation overexposures. It suggests an overall decline in reported radiation overexposures over 1980-2013. The greatest share of reported overexposures occurred in the medical fields using radiation therapy and fluoroscopy; this larger number of reported overexposures accidents indicates the potential need for enhanced quality assurance programs. Our data also highlights variations in characteristics of reported accidents by region. The main limitation of this study is the likely underreporting of radiation overexposures. Ensuring a comprehensive monitoring and reporting of radiation overexposures is paramount to inform and tailor prevention interventions to local needs. Public Library of Science 2015-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4366065/ /pubmed/25789482 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118709 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
spellingShingle Research Article
Coeytaux, Karen
Bey, Eric
Christensen, Doran
Glassman, Erik S.
Murdock, Becky
Doucet, Christelle
Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review
title Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review
title_full Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review
title_fullStr Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review
title_full_unstemmed Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review
title_short Reported Radiation Overexposure Accidents Worldwide, 1980-2013: A Systematic Review
title_sort reported radiation overexposure accidents worldwide, 1980-2013: a systematic review
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4366065/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25789482
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118709
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