An enormous increase in the application of wireless communication in recent decades has intensified research into consequent increase in human exposure to electromagnetic (EM) radiofrequency (RF) radiation fields and potential health effects, especially in school children and teenagers, and this paper gives a snap overview of current findings and recommendations of international expert bodies, with the emphasis on exposure from Wi-Fi technology indoor devices. Our analysis includes over 100 in vitro, animal, epidemiological, and exposure assessment studies (of which 37 in vivo and 30 covering Wi-Fi technologies). Only a small portion of published research papers refers to the “real” health impact of Wi-Fi technologies on children, because they are simply not available. Results from animal studies are rarely fully transferable to humans. As highly controlled laboratory exposure experiments do not reflect real physical interaction between RF radiation fields with biological tissue, dosimetry methods, protocols, and instrumentation need constant improvement. Several studies repeatedly confirmed thermal effect of RF field interaction with human tissue, but non-thermal effects remain dubious and unconfirmed.

Radiation protection and radiation dosimetry strongly rely on measurements performed by dosimetry instrumentation. Two categories of dosimetry instrumentation prevail: personal dosemeters and survey meters. Passive dosemeters were for many years the base of personal and area dosimetry (environmental, including workplace). Survey meters have been long-established between area meters due to their dose rate measurement capability, but just over a decade ago, debates over possibility that electronic personal dosemeters (EPDs) could replace passive personal dosemeters as legal monitoring devices have started. These debates have now branched into the use of EPDs, but also survey meters in various exposure scenarios, where some concerns have been reported. These concerns were mostly related to the response in pulsed X-ray fields and poor energy response. This article summarizes recent literature related to electronic dosemeters for strongly penetrating photon radiation and covers technologies used in contemporary EPDs and survey meters, their performance and future perspectives.

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Occupational exposure in Bosnia and Herzegovina is regulated by the national regulation on radiation protection for occupational and public exposure. All radiation workers are required to be monitored using whole body passive thermoluminescent dosemeters and, in case of non-uniform external exposures, by dosemeters that would indicate dose to the most affected body parts. Exposed workers are almost exclusively employed in the medical field, and some of them work in nuclear medicine departments where they handle unsealed radioactive sources. Introduction of the positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET–CT) in two largest clinical centers in the country was expected to cause the increase of equivalent doses to hands received by staff handling the positron emitting radionuclides. Hence, routine monitoring of finger doses became a necessity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the available data on monitoring with ring dosemeters during PET–CT procedure in two hospitals in Bosnia and Herzegovina and compare them with other practices in the nuclear medicine department, as well as with the results of monitoring in other countries. In general, results confirm that effective doses, as well as equivalent doses to hands, are well below annual dose limits. Finger dosemeters have been proven to be an invaluable asset in the incidental situations that sometimes occur in nuclear medicine departments. Different number of patients and differences in injection methodologies are identified as a possible source of differences between doses in two hospitals. Overall, routine evaluation of doses to hands provides a sound basis for possible optimization processes, as well as confirmation of good practices.