quarterly vs. monthly TLDs revisited

["Michael P. Grissom" <MIKEG%SLACVM.bitnet@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>]

Forwarded-from: MIKEG

1.  Due to cost constraints, we monitor our Radiation Workers on a
quarterly basis (presently using the Teledyne LiF Teflon discs system).
We have employees who can receive considerably more than 10 mrem per
month; however, which means an effective supplementary dosimeter
system must be in place.  We use PICs and electronic dosimeters in
various Radiation Work Permit/Radiological entry situations to provide
more timely input for our worker exposure control program.

2.  The legal regard dosimeter has been allowed to be issued quarterly
in many areas for some time now.  Assuming you (or your vendor) has
adequate performance in your radiation fields (solid knowledge of fade
factors, ECFs, etc.) and you can accept MDLs in the 10-20 mrem per
monitoring period (no dose reported below the MDL), you might even be
able to consider ANNUAL monitoring!  Especially for very low exposure
populations.  Of course, your regulators would likely want to be
assured that ALARA conditions were being maintained whatever monitoring
schedule you adopt!
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The opions expressed above are    |  The opinions above also do not
those of the author alone and do  |  represent those of anyone else
not represent those of the        |  I ever did work for anywhere
Stanford University or the US     |  else in the known universe.
Department of Energy.             |
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                         - - - - Forwarded Text - - - -


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From: "Jim F. Herrold" <HERROLD@uwyo.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Subject: quarterly vs. monthly TLDs revisited
X-Listserver-Version: 6.0 -- UNIX ListServer by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment:  Radiation Safety Distribution List

Back in November of 1993 there was a brief discussion on both radsafe and
safety networks about the merits of monthly or quarterly personnel monitoring.
Up until now we have been using film badges, for economy and other reasons. Now
we are being forced to go to TLDs on a select group of employees who will be
working in a biosafety containment facility due to the necessity for
sterilizing the badges when they come out. The process of sterilization is
somewhat complicated and time consuming (over a week). Because of theis reason,
and the added cost of TLDs, we are considering going to quarterly badges. We
have the exposure records from these same people when they were in another
building showing hardly ever a reading over 10 mrem in any month, so I don't
have a problem with less frequent badge reports. While investigating the
possibilities, we have been considering converting the rest of the campus to
quarterly while we are at it.

My question to radsafers is: Is there somebody out there who has gone to
quarterly monitoring, for part or all of your monitored population, or anyone
else out there who feels strongly enough about this subject, who can tell me
what advantages or problems you have found? I would appreciate any information
I can get at this point. We are looking at converting to TLDs for these people
within the next week or so.

Jim Herrold, U of Wyoming