[ RadSafe ] NYC Council bill on detectors: Simple question

[grahnk at comcast.net]

So they control the quality of the information and know what's (models, units) out there, and who's qualified to read the instruments, and to avoid using resources for false alarms.

We get calls all the time for people with their own instruments that think their house is radioactive because they're measuring background or their building materials.  I've also had people (firefighters) misread their new Ludlum 2241 digital units, only look at the number and not the units and request our emergency reponse people to provide assistance.  I responded to a scrap yard last year that was convinced they found a truck with a 20 R/hr source in it with their new instrument.  It was a source, but only 200 microR/hr.  They mis-read the scale and the units on the display.

So I understand the motivation for the proposed NYC rules, but I don't agree with it.  If they were going to implement any version of this,  it should be that they only respond to alarms from qualified, registered sources.  And if they let an HP answer the phone, instead of a police officer, they would know to ask questions (about make, model, last calibration, function check, scale settings, units etc.) before sending in the cavalry.

Kelly Grahn
Illinois Emergency Management Agency, Divison of Nuclear Safety

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Bjorn Cedervall <bcradsafers at hotmail.com> 

> 
> I apologize for asking something that many of you probably understand 
> - I hesitate to go through all the previous postings/responses to the subject: 
> 
> Can anyone summarize in 2-3 lines what the point would be to register 
> Geiger counters? (I don't understand it) 
> 
> Wouldn't it be better if there were lots of them "out there" so that the general 
> public learns more about natural background radiation? 
> 
> My personal comment only, 
> 
> Bjorn Cedervall bcradsafers at hotmail.com 
> 
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