What dosimeter should I use for personnel monitoring?

Table comparing some common dosimeters used for personnel dose assessment.

Attribute	Film	TLD	OSL	EPD
Radiation detected	x, γ, ß, n	x, γ, ß, n	x, γ, ß	x, γ, ß
Sensitive medium	Crystalline AgBr in gelatinous matrix on plastic substrate. Grain size and density vary for neutron track film vs. ß-γ film.	Crystalline thermoluminescent material, e.g., LIF (Mg, Ti), LiF(Mg, Cu, P), CaSO₄ (Dy or Tm), Li₂B₄O₇ (Cu)	Crystalline optiluminescent material, e.g., Al₂O₃(C)	Usually silicon diode, some use small G-M tube.
Dose range	100 µSv - 5 Sv	100 µSv - 10 Sv (10 µSv possible)	10 µSv - 10 Sv	1 µSv - 10 Sv
Energy range (x and gamma)	5 keV - 3 MeV	5 keV - 6 MeV	5 keV - 10 MeV	50 keV - 6 MeV
Advantages	Relatively inexpensive; long-term visual record; provides visual image of exposure pattern.	Rugged; environmentally stable; good range; relatively rapid processing (in-house); allows infrequent readout (three months and up to one year for some); can be reused multiple times; Li phosphors have good tissue equivalence.	High sensitivity, multiple rereads possible; rapid readout; some dose imaging possible; rugged; environmentally stable; allows infrequent processing (up to one year); can be reused multiple times.	Very high sensitivity; real-time response; can display rate and integral dose; preset alarm; can provide time history of dose; can offer remote readout and computer manipulation.
Disadvantages	Subject to environmental influences (temp. and humidity); requires frequent processing; processing usually requires outside vendor and is relatively slow; requires filtration to account for energy dependence; fast neutrons below about 700 keV are not measured; insensitive to beta radiation below a few hundred keV.	Cannot be reread; requires capital expenditure (for in-house processing); the Ca phosphors require filtration to account for energy dependence; neutron sensitivity of albedo dosimeters decreases sharply with increasing energy.	Requires large capital expenditure (for in-house processing); vendor-supplied dosimetry likely more expensive than other vendor-supplied dosimetry.	May be subject to EM interference; may require considerable capital expenditure.

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