309 / 536
5.2.3 Significant Radiation protection Events
Significant Radiation protection Events (ESR) have been
notified to ASN since 2007. These notifications provide
professionals with increasingly valuable experience
feedback, helping to improve radiation protection in
the medical field.
Since July 2015, radiotherapy departments can notify
significant radiation protection events on line. The on-line
notificationportal is sharedwith the ANSM(FrenchHealth
Products Safety Agency); it enables the professionals to
notify ESRs andmedical device vigilance events relating
to radiotherapy. This portal falls within the framework
of the single vigilance portal created by the Ministry of
Health. It will be extended to the entire medical domain
in 2016.
After increasing steadily from2007 to 2014, the number
of ESRs dropped slightly in 2015. Since 2012, the number
of ESRs has totalled about 500 per year. In 2015, the
number of ESRs notified to ASN in the medical field
stood at 525 (557 in 2014).
ASN receives two notifications of ESRs in the medical
field per working day on average. The incident notices
are published on
www.asn.fr.
Significant events concerning workers
(6% of notified ESRs)
The majority of ESRs concerning workers notified in
2015 occurred in nuclear medicine. Themost significant
include:
•
contaminations of nuclear medicine workers
primarily with technetium-99m due to handling
errors (inappropriate syringe piston, incorrect use of
catheters, dropping of a syringe, breaking of a flask of
chromium-51 in the waste storage room);
•
external exposure of workers in a hospital department
who were required to take care of a female patient
who had received radioactive iodine therapy before
her transfer. This ESR was rated level 1 on the INES
scale because the PCR had not been consulted.
2013
2014
2015
2009
2008
2007
2012
2011
2010
0
100
200
300
ESR NOTIFICATIONS
by area of activity
Interventional
radiology
Radiotherapy
Nuclear medicine
Conventional
and dental
radiology
Computed
Tomography
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2015
2014
0
300
600
104
309
363
422 431
529
550
525
557
MEDICAL ESRS
309
CHAPTER 09:
MEDICAL USES OF IONISING RADIATION
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015