[ RadSafe ] Collective Dose and colorimetric dosimeters

Wed Jan 12 13:04:35 CST 2011

While I believe that hospitals should plan exercise for possible
emergencies that have radiological aspects, I do not believe the
radiological aspect should be given a particularly high priority.  It
certainly should not get in the way of proper lifesaving efforts.  I
believe that training for first receivers should emphasize that good
standard technique for dealing with injured people is the best first
line of defense in a rad event.  

Casualties arriving at a hospital from a rad event may be contaminated,
but they are certainly injured (ignoring for the moment the "worried
well" who go to the hospital themselves, and who present a large but
different problem).  I do not believe it is reasonable to assume that
the contamination on an injured person (let alone every injured person)
presents a direct radiation hazard; certainly not in the time it will
take to treat life threatening wounds.  As a source of risk to the
hospital personnel, it probably isn't in the top 50, let alone the
biggest.  

Contamination by radioactive material is a more realistic concern, but
still not big enough that it should disrupt operations.  The precautions
taken against biological contamination work well against radiological
contamination, so if the workers are gloved, gowned, and masked, they
should be good to go.  As for deconning a space and equipment
afterwards; I would MUCH rather be trying to find radioactive material
than bacteria and viruses.   

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of ??? ???
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 1:20 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Collective Dose and colorimetric dosimeters

I agree with Bill and will be happy to get comments on a similar issue: 
Subject: Hospital preparedness to radiological emergencies, either
accidents or terror, not nuclear. 
I believe all will agree that hospital first receivers should be
monitored to possible exposure.
 I hope too all will agree that the majority of them, or a great number,
are not "radiation workers", hence are "members of the public" regarding
doses.
Colorimetric dosimeters are now on the market (RADview, SIRAD) and are
much chipper the EPDs. So there is a tendency to purchase them instead
of EPAs.

Question: Hospital first receiver's possible exposure may be much lowers
then that of first responders acting on the scene - true or false?

If true, then since colorimetric badges are not sensitive do doses
smaller the several rems, do not give dose rate indication or alarm, and
that there is no way to learn exact dose, there is a need of a better
measuring unit.     

Best regards
Moshe  Keren, M.Occ.H.
Head of Ionizing Radiation Inapection Unit
Noise and Radiation Abatement Department
Ministry of Environmental Protection
ISRAEL
e-mail:moshek at sviva.gov.il      

-----Original Message-----
From: William Lipton [mailto:doctorbill34 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 9:16 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Collective Dose

Tracking collective dose, is very important in ensuring good
radiological
work practices.  Without this, management would consider whether it's
cheaper to hire more workers instead of spending the money required for
engineering controls.  This is especially true for jobs which can be
performed by unskilled labor.  I've heard of situations where management
hired workers, burned them out quickly, and then replaced them.  These
workers were then unemployable as radiation workers for the rest of the
quarter.  This is NOT good health physics.

Collective dose is an important parameter for evaluating an ALARA
program.

Bill Lipton

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 10:21 AM, Perle, Sandy <SPerle at mirion.com> wrote:

> Otto,
>
> I see where collective dose is useful when planning repetitive jobs,
> primarily in nuclear plant environments, and is also a useful metric
to
> determine that appropriate actions have been taken to reduce the
overall
> dose with degradation of the job's goals established. Individual dose
is
> obviously of greater importance, but these individual doses ultimately
do
> roll-up.
>
> I personally like the term dose/hour worked when comparing dose
reduction
> success and job planning.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sandy
>
> On Jan 4, 2011, at 6:47 AM, Otto G. Raabe wrote:
>
> >
> >> January 4, 2011
> >
> > Collective dose is meaningless and misleading. Only individual dose
> > is meaningful.
> >
> > Otto
> >
> >
> > **********************************************
> > Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
> > Center for Health & the Environment
> > University of California
> > One Shields Avenue
> > Davis, CA 95616
> > E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
> > Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
> > ***********************************************
> > _
>
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