Health Physics Questions and Answers - Question 211

Question 211: 20.1502 (a) (2) and (b) (2) say that monitoring is required for declared pregnant women "...likely to receive, in 1 year,..." a dose in excess of 10 percent of the applicable limits for the embryo / fetus.

(a) What year does this refer to?

(b) Since the gestation period is 9 months (and since monitoring would begin after the declaration, which may be several months into a pregnancy), why does the regulation use a year?

(c) The licensee badges a declared pregnant woman (whose estimated date of delivery is in January or February) during the current calendar year. The licensee then estimates that for the next calendar year, between the start of the year and delivery, the declared pregnant woman's external doses will be less that 10 percent of the applicable embryo / fetus dose limits, is the licensee required to badge the woman for the new year?

(d) Can licensees assume that after delivery, the "year" time period is over and that monitoring the woman (to demonstrate compliance with the embryo / fetus dose limits) is no longer required?

Answer:

(a) The word "year" is used to indicate a 12-month period starting in January. (See definition of year in 10 CFR 20.1003).

(b) This requirement is for determining whether monitoring must be provided, and the term year is used to be consistent with other monitoring criteria as specified in 10 CFR 20.1502.

(c) Once a determination is made to monitor the declared pregnant woman, monitoring is to continue for the entire pregnancy, to determine compliance with the limit of exposure to the embryo / fetus.

(d) Yes. Once the woman is no longer a declared pregnant woman, the need to provide monitoring will be based on requirements of 10 CFR 20.1502 (a) (1).

(Reference: 10 CFR 20.1502, 10 CFR 20.1003)