Re: Dosimetry

[Jim Abraham <jimabe@lamar.colostate.edu>]

Bob Hearn wrote:
> 
> 12,000 badges are not required to support monthly dosimetry for 1,000
> monitored.  A minimum of 2,000 are necessary to support contiguous
> changeout, plus some additional for delay, loss and logistics issues.  

This is beside the point.  And yes I do understand that there are
additional costs for delay, loss, and logistics.  We get fined for delay
and loss.  So right there, those items of logistics should not be
included when comparing a monthly exchange to a quarterly.


Bob Hearn wrote:
This
> is the same number of badges needed to support quarterly changeout.  The
> same capital investment (time value of $) is tied up in both cases; 

Please explain this.  I don't understand (honestly, I'm not trying to be
sarcastic) how the same number of badges is needed to suport 1/4 of what
would be a typical (in our case monthly) circulation.  At this point,
this makes no sense to me. 


Bob Hearn wrote:
the
> primary difference being the attrition factor for 3x more reads of a badge
> under the monthly program, along with the attendant per-read processing
> costs.  

This is where I expect to incurr the cost


Bob Hearn wrote:

Genral ongoing QC (e.g., NAVLAP) and records maintenance do not
> produce a significant reduction with quarterly changeout intervals.

I have had dosimetry vendors tell me different.


Bob Hearn wrote:
> 
> There is thus a lesser cost to support quarterly monintoring, however, the
> relationship is far from linear.

I don't care about the relationship being linear.  I care about the
relationship being fair.  To tripple the price of a body badge by the
vendor when moving from monthly to quarterly doesn't seem fair for
(again) the fraction of work being done. 

-- 
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
James P. Abraham
Alt. Radiation Safety Officer
Radiation Control Office - Environmental Health Serv.
Colorado State University - Fort Collins, CO 80523-6021

Phone: 	(970) 491-3928		Fax: 	(970) 491-4804
email: 	jimabe@lamar.colostate.edu
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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