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Re: Fwd: Re: respiratory tract dose
I was going to try to stay out of his as I am an RSO and a former/still
"meter swinger", but I just really can't stand the elitism I see cropping
up its ugly head again. I do not understand the presumption that health
physics is a field that is so specialized and mystical that you have to be
a CHP to understand and practice it.
I used to joke IH's as being even more nerdly than HP's but after watching
my friend study for and pass the CIH exam first try, I have a great deal
more respect for them. Let me ask this: How many asbestos, hearing
conservation and toxicology questions did you have to answer on the CHP
exam? How many questions about industrial safety, confined space and
indoor air quality did you have to answer? My guess is zero. Both the CIH
and CSP exam have questions about health physics on them. Oh yeah, and the
hazards they deal with actually kill people, not in some abstract
estimation of cancer incidence but in real-time call the medical examiner
kinds of ways. Don't trivialize their PROFESSION by implying that he can't
do his job because he's looking for some help in finding formulas.
As far as RSO's go, if you are an employer and you have a few radioactive
sources which require you to have an RSO, why would you go hire a CHP, when
you could hire someone who could do more than worry about your trivial
sources? By many peoples eyes on this list I am sure that I would not
appear qualified to be an RSO, but the fact is that traditional health
physics is only about 10 percent of my job, I also run the laser and
nonionizing radiation programs here. I certainly don't remember learning
how to do MPE calculations and formulate safety plans for airborne high
energy laser systems in any of my health physics classes. An RSO has to
know enough to do the job he has been hired to do. I don't care if my
doctor knows everything about neurosurgery if I am seeing him for a
migraine. I just need him to be able to treat what I have.
This whole thread has just reiterated the old saying "there are no stupid
questions, only stupid answers."
Kim Merritt
Radiation/Laser Safety Officer
HazMed, Inc.
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, VA
(757)864-3210
<mailto:k.merritt@larc.nasa.gov>
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