SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE HEALTH IMPACTS OF RADIATION ON OPERATORS OF MEDICAL DEVICES AND ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE COL-LECTION WORKERS

Introduction: Healthcare professionals, face various occupational hazards including ionizing radiation, during certain examinations, which can lead to serious health impacts. Purpose: This research estimated the impacts of radiation exposure, in the health of medical devices’ Operators and radioactive waste collection workers, as well as the knowledge of the employees on various legislative and technical fields. Material - Method: The sample consisted of 120 participants, who were chosen through the systematic stratified sampling method. An anonymous questionnaire, consisted of 60 questions was given to the participants. Results: The majority of the sample (92.5% N=111), was trained in the operation of the medical equipment, while many (52.5% N=63) were also aware of the legislation on radioactive waste management. However, a high percentage (90.8% N=109), still believes that there is a need to learn more about health and safety in the field of radiation. Thyroid cancer, is considered the most common form of cancer, among the radiological machine Operators (44.4% N=68). There’s a statistical significance found, between the development of a disease and the availability of protection means (p=0.012), as well as between the participants’ knowledge on legislation and the necessary checks performed on the medical equipment (p=0.05). Conclusions: Although employees have the necessary knowledge to manage radiation at the workplace, they are willing to learn more. Finally, most of the workers knew about the use of protection means and had neither a work accident, nor a health problem during their work.