[ RadSafe ] RadSafe Digest, Vol 438, Issue 1

[blreider at aol.com]

Michael, 

I agree, correct understanding of and use of units and terms is important for many reasons.  "R" is not the same as "r" which is not used.  "M" is not the same as "m".  Once an engineering company I worked for ordered a source for a client as MR/hr as it was in the beginning of a sentence and it should have been mR/hr.  Just a few orders of magnitude too big.  Needless to say the client had to send the source back.  Writing mega or milli would have clarified this. 

I think the hyphen v non-hyphenated versions of X-rays may have come from dos based programs that could and could not have certain characters in various positions.  Perhaps a dos programmer can verify this.  Both of these do work though unless of course you meant to talk about photons or gamma rays.

Barbara Reider, CHP






-----Original Message-----
From: Stabin, Michael <michael.g.stabin at Vanderbilt.Edu>
To: radsafe <radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Wed, Oct 20, 2010 1:25 pm
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] RadSafe Digest, Vol 438, Issue 1


>I get annoyed when a CHP lectures to emergency responders, radiation workers, 
tc. about, for example, the difference between a rad and Roentgen, because the 
tudents don't care, don't need to know, and, most importantly won't remember.
The "x ray" vs "x-ray" thing is a very minor point, I agree, I wasn't lecturing 
nyone, just noting that when writing this is a nit to pick. I hope that health 
hysicists and health physics students know the difference between a rad and a 
oentgen. If you tell me that you just measured 3 mR/hr of beta radiation, I 
ope you realize that you are speaking nonsense, exposure only applies to 
hotons. Sure, for photons an R is about a rad is about a rem in soft tissue, 
ut the difference in the three fundamental quantities is very important and 
etter be understood. 
I have been simply amazed at some of the things we are seeing when grading Part 
 and Part II exams. People sitting for this exam don't understand secular 
quilibrium, what a gas detector curve is, and other fundamental aspects of 
ealth physics. This is not a 'highbrow' professor or CHP thing, this is that if 
ou are working with radiation, you should be well trained in fundamentals, and 
he difference between a rad and a Roentgen is pretty fundamental. Is it OK for 
n electrician to think that current and capacitance are the same thing?

Mike
Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP
ssociate Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
epartment of Radiology and Radiological Sciences
anderbilt University
161 21st Avenue South
ashville, TN 37232-2675
hone (615) 343-4628
ax   (615) 322-3764
-mail     michael.g.stabin at vanderbilt.edu
nternet   www.doseinfo-radar.com
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