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1. An MSDS is OSHA-specified as part of its
right-to-know regulation; we aren't governed by them. If we were, we'd have to
allow respirators any time a worker wanted one. Although they've also adopted
the ALARA approach, we don't really have much in common with what they
do.
2. Radioactive materials aren't (generally)
considered "hazardous" materials; when combined with hazardous waste,
radioactive waste becomes mixed waste. So the bottom line is that there's a
difference and never the twain shall meet.
I've
mentioned before that when I taught the NRC 40-hour RSO course to the CIH crowd,
they would get really upset with me right off the bat when I told them that the
chemicals they worked with were much more dangerous than anything they'd run
into as RSOs. By the time we finished bio effects on day two (with the risk in
perspective to everyday biological risks), I had no more arguments. Of course,
there was the fact that we always had to spend the first four hours on Monday on
math (algebra) review . . . might have had something to do with reminding them
that there were things they didn't know or remember.
Jack Earley
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