[ RadSafe ] Re: Question about a service-connected condition - Ext. vs Int. Expose Meas.

[roseb at gdls.com]

05/04/2006 09:59 PM John Andrews wrote:

>Based on my experience measuring filters from sampling missions in the 
late 50's, I would guess that since he was the pilot and not the guy 
switching filters and marking and labeling and storing, then carrying them 
to the analytical lab, he got very little exposure.  Those doing the 
filter changing were badged as I recall.

>It also depends on where he was stationed and what type of sampling he 
was doing.  For my part, I never saw samples that were hot enough to cause 
a radiation area to be posted.  Some were very interesting, though.

John:

The pilot as a member of the flight crew flying through the plume under 
study, could have been exposed to airborne concentrations of radioactive 
contaminant.  Pressurization and breathing air is supplied to the aircraft 
(assuming the aircraft was pressurized) from the compressor stage of a jet 
engine, or the supercharger of a reciprocating engine.  Either means of 
air supply to the aircraft would have drawn and concentrated contaminated 
air from the plume.  It would seem that whatever the sampling filters 
collected, the flight crews would be exposed to the same contamination 
collected by the sample filters.

Although flight crews and support personnel might have been "badged" with 
either film badges, sealed ionization chambers (pocket dosimeters), or 
other dosimeters, or a "radiation meter" for external radiation exposure, 
such dosimeters would not have necessarily been effective in accounting 
for internal exposures.  Other than obtain dosimeter readings for the 
flight crews, did the Air Force, Army, Navy, or other agencies that were 
doing similar plume sampling conduct any post-mission contamination 
surveys of the aircraft (cabin or exterior), the crew air masks, or, were 
any internal dosimetry studies of aircrews involved in collecting plume 
samples performed?  (Obviously, I have not done a search of the literature 
on this subject!)

A sample would not necessarily have to be "... hot enough to cause a 
radiation area to be posted...." to preclude individuals breathing in air 
from the plume from receiving intakes and uptakes of contamination from 
the plume.

Henry Rose

Boyd H. Rose, CM, CIH, CHMM
Sr. Safety  and Environmental Engineering Specialist
Corporate Radiation Safety  Officer
General Dynamics Land Systems
38500 Mound Road
Mail Zone  436-10-75
Sterling Heights, MI 48310-3269
Tel: 586 825 4503
Fax: 586 825 4015
E-mail: roseb at gdls.com



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