[ RadSafe ] radiography incident -Unpardonable carelessness Training material??

[Dan McCarn]

Dear Dr. P:

I think the public understands far more than some give them credit for...
but the public absolutely cannot accept injuries and deaths when they are
related to poor training, incapable operations, lax attention to safety and
poor maintenance. I'm sure that there are very many people still furious
about the outcome of Bhopal regardless of the cause.

Dan ii

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 12:07 PM, parthasarathy k s <ksparth at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

> Dan,
>
> I recall India lost a few officers in a plane crash while carrying out
> geological surveys as a part of uranium prospecting.
>
> I could not convince my colleagues about the need for incorporating
> unpleasant pictures of radiation burns in training material for
> radiographers.One of their arguments was that public may misunderstand it.
>
> Regards
> Parthasarathy
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Dan McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
> *To:* The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
> List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>; parthasarathy k s <ksparth at yahoo.co.uk>
>
> *Sent:* Monday, 2 April 2012, 13:39
> *Subject:* Re: [ RadSafe ] radiography incident -Unpardonable carelessness
>
> Hi Dr. P:
>
> I remember taking my helicopter safety training years ago for geological
> reconnaissance in remote areas. The entire training took 1 week. Part of
> that training involved watching & discussing films in which very badly
> burned pilots were reporting on their personal experiences of survival
> following catastrophic failure of aircraft. Following that training, I
> spent several weeks involved in "higher-hazard" flight operations at high
> altitudes.  I had one very close call after a main rotor stall 3 meters
> above the ground at about 3,300 m elevation. The helicopter became a very
> large "weed-eater" for a few seconds and the rotors barely managed to miss
> several large boulders. I was wearing all my safety equipment (nomex flight
> suit, gloves and helmet). The company that I worked for lost 2 crews and
> helicopters doing similar work over a 2-year period.  One of these crashes
> resulted from a rear-rotor failure.  The other was likely due to a main
> rotor stall while attempting to land at high altitude, similar to my
> experience.
>
> Personally, I feel that such graphic means are necessary to impress on
> personnel the potential dangers inherent in these sorts of activities, but
> re-training is required. Perhaps if the individuals involved had an
> occasional adrenalin rush from a "close call" (such as in other hazardous
> work), they would be more respectful of the danger potential.
>
> Training for normal operations is not difficult; knowing that if part of
> the equipment fails, it's time to go to your supervisor or company of
> manufacture and get advise that may not be in the operations book is
> essential.  I think the equipment failure as described would be the
> helicopter equivalent of a main rotor stall or worse... And that is an
> unthinkable failure.
>
> I remember this exact sort of failure occurred on geophysical logging
> trucks from time to time.
>
> --
> Dan ii
>
> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
> 108 Sherwood Blvd
> Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
> +1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
> +1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
> HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 7:08 PM, Dahlskog, Leif <
> Leif.Dahlskog at health.wa.gov.au> wrote:
>
> Dear Parthasarathy
>
> I agree with you about pictures of burns etc.  In our jurisdiction we
> require the ind. rad. assistants (trainee) to undergo a basic radiation
> safety exam.  I used to administer the exam some years ago.  After the
> exam, I'd show the examinee a dummy pigtail (source holder) as this
> would hopefully be the only time they'd ever see one, but if they did in
> future they'd recognise what it was.  I would also show them some
> graphic pictures of burns caused by ind. rad. accidents.  If they choose
> to work in this industry they must recognise the potential for serious
> injury and death and their responsibilities to safety for colleagues and
> the public.  The IAEA accident reports are very useful for this.
> Particularly 'The Radiological Accident in Yanango' which can be found
> in acrobat pdf format on the IAEA website.
>
> The U.S.N.R.C. had a video titled "Taking Control: Safe Procedure for
> Industrial Radiography" which although used the wrong units ( :-} -
> that's a smiley - ie humour intented for those challenged on a Monday
> morning), was about the best I'd seen covering basic safety for
> industrial radiographers. It was in VHS-NTSC format. I had it converted
> to PAL format and with USNRC's permission, distributed copies to all the
> industrial radiography companies in our jurisdiction.  An update of the
> video with Bq and Sv in DVD format would be great but I am not aware if
> it is even available any longer.
>
> regards
>
> Leif Dahlskog
> Senior Health Physicist
> Radiation Health Branch
>
> Grace Vaughan House, 227 Stubbs Terrace, Shenton Park WA 6009
> AUSTRALIA
>
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-- 
Dan ii

Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com