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

[William V Lipton <liptonw@dteenergy.com>]

Right On, Ron!  Since this thread started, I've been trying to compose a
message.  You said it all for me; many thanx.

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com

"Ron L. Kathren" wrote:

> 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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