[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Pilots UV-A radiation exposure

Ted de Castro tdc at xrayted.com
Sun Dec 28 21:08:07 CST 2014


Flying a whole set of Bonner Spheres is not a trivial matter - been 
there done that!  With McCaslin in fact!

For just dose - an Andersson Braun detector would be easiest - although 
not light weight - especially the extended high energy version.

On 12/22/2014 7:49 PM, JPreisig at aol.com wrote:
> Joe,
>   
>       I guess there's an Ed Bramlitt.  I also  believe there's a Bramblett,
> Ewing and Bonner --- inventors of Bonner Neutron  Spectrometry.  See
> Patterson and Thomas's Accelerator Health Physics.   See also Cossairt's
> Accelerator Health Physics course notes/manual.
>   
>          Joe Preisig
>   
> PS  Badges are OK in airplanes....but one really needs a Neutron
> Spectrometer (for thermal neutron to 20 MeV energies) and a plastic scintillator
> (n,2n reaction) for 20 MeV to 400 MeV neutrons.  Scintillator see the back  end
> of Patterson and Thomas's Accelerator Health Physics book (McCaslins's
> plastic scintillator lab exercise).
>   
>   
>   
>   a message dated 12/21/2014 2:36:32 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> jjshonka at shonka.com writes:
>   
> Hans
>
>
> I am quite interested in your badge results, and  what would be a
> significant radiation exposure.  You have an unusually  high number of frequent flyer
> miles.  If we assume total neutron plus  gamma of 500 mrem  (5 mSv) per
> 100,000 frequent flyer miles or per year,  and 15 rem over a  3 million mile or
> 30 year career, I have the following  questions:  (1) were your badges
> neutron sensitive (80% of GCR dose is  due to neutrons)?; (2) how often were
> they read out (quarterly, monthly?); (3)  were many of your miles extra credits
> rather than actual miles flown (e.g.  first class gets 2X miles)?; (4) were
> your miles collected evenly or did you  travel more extensively during some
> fraction of your career?; (5) what would  you say the reporting limit or
> detection limit of the badges was (e.g any  reading less than 10 mrem (0.1
> mSv) reported as 0)?; (6) were your badges used  for work and did they have
> measureable exposure from sources other than  background plus your flight time?
>
>
> Ed Bramlitt and I have a note in  the January, 2015 issue of Health Physics
> that discusses intermittent sources  of exposure to aircrew, including
> solar proton, neutron and gamma events and  terrestrial gamma flashes.  About 1%
> of the 1200 Terrestrial gamma  flashes that are large enough to be detected
> by satellites that occur each day  (world-wide) approach estimated doses in
> aircraft of up to 30 to 100 mSv, for  example.  Although rare, these likely
> would have been observed on your  badge.  The more numerous dose of 10 mSv
> or greater (my estimate of the  lower limit of detection for the GBM
> detectors on board FERMI) might also be  detectable, however, presumably even more
> numerous but undetectable lower dose  TGFs (below 10 mSv) might not be
> detected.  I am interested in how large  one of those events could have been
> without your noticing an unusual  reading.
>
>
> I assume the background control badges were  at your place of employment.
> Finally, (7) For example, if you typically  had 12 flights per quarter, and
> one of those flights encountered a source that  provided 1,000 mrem (10 mSv)
> 80 % of which was neutron and only 200 mrem (2  mSv) was gamma, would you
> have noticed it as an unusual badge reading?
>
>
> Joe Shonka
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from Windows  Mail
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Hans J Wiegert
> Sent: ‎Saturday‎,  ‎December‎ ‎20‎, ‎2014 ‎7‎:‎18‎ ‎PM
> To: The International Radiation  Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
>
>
>
>
>
> For what it's  worth.
>
> I am not so sure about this. During my career I traveled almost  3 million
> miles on various airlines with my seating preference being a  window seat.
> Never noticed anything like this. As a side note, on almost  all of those
> trips I carried a film badge on me and in recent years the  Landauer Luxel
> OSL badge.  The badges never showed any significant  radiation exposure.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Hans
>
> *Retirement is,  when the only day you have to set your alarm clock is
> Sunday - so you are  not late for church!*
>
> On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 2:19 PM, Chris Alston  <achris1999 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This is easy to  believe.  I, as a passenger, have gotten a pretty good
>> tan,  mostly on one side of my face, on just one trip from Seattle to
>> San  Diego.  Fortunately, I had a window seat on the other side of the
>>   aircraft (DC-9 family, for whatever it is worth) on the northward
>>   return flight, to "touch up" the other side of my face, else I would
>>   have looked like that arch-criminal in the Batman comics.
>>
>>   Cheers
>> cja
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 8:36 PM, ROY HERREN  <royherren2005 at yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>> Hopefully the  following isn't too "off topic", given that the article
> is
>> dealing  with UV-A radiation.
>>   
> http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/airline-pilots-can-be-exposed-to-cockpit-radiation-similar-to-tanning-beds/
>>   > Airline Pilots Can Be Exposed to Cockpit Radiation Similar to  Tanning
>> Beds
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