[ RadSafe ] Nasal Swabs?

[JGinniver at aol.com]

At the facility that I work at in the UK, we require all personnel to  
provide 'noseblows' if we believe that their has been the potential for  individuals 
to have inhaled activity as a consequence of an incident or  accident.  
However in a couple of high alpha facilities we are undertaking  routine analysis 
of noseblows from individuals who have been wearing respiratory  protective 
equipment.  We do not use these to estimate dose uptake, they  are simple used as 
one of a number of indicators that further bioassay is  required.  
 
Their are potential problems with using noseblow results for bioassy e.g.  
the individuals may be 'mouth breathers' rather than 'nose breathers'.  The  
activity may consist of a few discrete particles rather than finely divided dust  
and so a particle may be lodged in the nose and not breathed, or may have 
been  breathed and not gone anywhere near the nose.  Note: This is one of the  
long running arguments surrounding Personal Air Sampling. There exists the  
possibility of cross-contamination of the noseblow due to poor contamination  
control or 'sampling procedure'.
 
Our samples are not counted in drawer unit but are processed by our  
Chemistry Laboratories and are usually counted overnight so results are  available the 
following day and any results above the action level can be  highlighted to 
plant management before the worker undertakes any further  work.
 
Regards,
    Julian