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Deja Vu -- Health Physics Society => Radiation Safety Society



The idea that Peter Vernig proposed of a name change for the Society is not
new, and indeed was the subject of an unsiccessful campaign to do so by then
HPS President the late Merril Eisenbud (1965-66).  Exactly the same
arguments in favor of the change were proposed then.  A few year later
(1968), I compiled a list of more than 40 terms that were used synonymously
with the term health physics.

In the now more than half century since the term 'health physics' has been
coined, and the term has become well established in the scientific
literature and has become recognized in scientific circles, regulations and
standards, academic programs, civil service job classifications and appears
in numerous technical dictionaries and even in popularly used encyclopedias.
Indeed, it does not differ from similar terms used to describe other
professions, most notably 'industrial hygienist' or 'sanitarian' or even
'otorhynolaryngologist' with which the public has little or no familiarity.

To change now after 50+ years (45 in the case of the HPS) would seem to me
to a very large step backward and indeed counterproductive.  Actually, this
rather unusual name can be a benefit; when someone asks me what my
profession is, I (with pride) respond "health physics" and follow up with
"the science and art of protecting people and the environment from harmful
effects of radiation".  This usually sparks a discussion of what we do, and
is an excellent informal way of educating lay people not only about health
physics and health physicists, but of radiation hazards in perspective.

Ron Kathren

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