UK Regulations

[ROBBARISH@AOL.COM]

Greetings all,



I apologize for those of you who have seen this posting a few days ago on 

MEDPHYS, but I got no answer from anyone on that list (over 2,000 physicists).



I have a question for those of you in the UK who are familiar with current 

radiation safety regulations. On February 26 I sent a posting to RADSAFE 

about a radioactive mineral I had measured. To briefly recap, in February, 

the Natural History museum in South Kensington, London, was fined for 

allowing members of the public to be exposed without cautionary information 

to emanations from radioactive minerals in its collection. Subsequent to 

this, I was involved by a major international auction house in measuring and 

preparing for shipment a small piece of the mineral novacekite which was sold 

for $90,000 to a British collector. I now have a short paper on this 

interesting project in press at the Operational Radiation Safety supplement 

to Health Physics and I'll tell you when it's scheduled for publication if 

you request that information. 



My immediate question relates to a new assignment: to help design an exhibit 

case which will allow the collector to show this little rock in his home. I 

would like someone familiar with UK regulations to tell me what dose standard 

to use in designing the display case. Is there an hourly dose rate limit 

applicable to the case's surface, against which someone could press their 

nose while gazing in rapt attention to the object? Is there a limit at some 

fixed distance, like, say,1 meter? Is it simply a matter of restricting the 

annual dose to some value like 1 mSv, making assumptions about viewing time 

and distance?  Well, you get the idea. You may reply to me personally since 

the majority of the list probably doesn't need this information.  And be kind 

to me if you think that the answer is obvious. Remember that Wolf Seelentag 

and I, foreigners both, were Prof. Boag's last two Ph.D. students so we still 

have a bit of a British soul. Besides, I was a Capital Radio DJ which means 

I'm still "in tune with London."



Thanks for your help.



Rob Barish 

robbarish@aol.com



PS If you didn't look at a picture of this little rock at the time of my 

posting on 26 Feb, you can go to:



http://www.sothebys.com/liveauctions/sneak/_popups/ah_mineral5_1200_popup.html



PPS Jack Boag turned 90 last week and has my most heartfelt best wishes for 

many more happy healthy years.

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