Intercomparison of personal dosimetry for service providers in Pakistan.

An intercomparison exercise for personal dosimetry service providers within Pakistan was conducted by the Health Physics Division of the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology. Participation in the exercise was on voluntary basis. The exercise was carried out to harmonize individual dose monitoring techniques for high energy photons in terms of a new operational quantity, namely personal dose equivalent Hp(10), for personal dosimetry in accordance with the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. Each laboratory submitted 25 dosimeters for participation in the intercomparison exercise. Protection level Co and Cs sources were used for irradiation of dosimeters on a water phantom according to International Atomic Energy Agency protocol at the Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory. Hp(10) doses for five different dose levels were measured by the participating laboratories. The ratios of measured dose/true dose (Hm/Ht) remained in the range of 0.66 to 1.11 for the Co source and 0.84 to 1.17 for the Cs source. Performance of service providers' laboratories to measure Hp(10) doses was analyzed and evaluated in terms of trumpet curves plotted for photons at a 95% confidence level.