Re: Badging Workers

["William A. Fendt" <35346@strauss.udel.edu>]

At the University of Delaware we meet annually with our ancillary 
personnel (custodians, plant operations staff) for radiation awareness 
training.  We explain that our "busiest" radiation workers receive less 
than 5% of the annual dose limit.  This apparently is successful in 
forestalling requests from ancillary staff for bagdes.  I'd be surprised 
if badging of ancillary personnel is done as "frequently ... at 
universities" as Mr. Boyce states.  Or am I out of touch?  Bill Fendt


On Sat, 17 Sep 1994, Dale E. Boyce wrote:

> Keith,
> 
> Many of the people we badge are not "radworkers".  Physical plant
> engineers, janatorial staff, etc. are frequently badged at hospitals
> and universities just so we can show that they aren't exposed to
> anything.  We also badge a lot of doctors, professors, post docs, techs
> etc. that work with radioactive materials in quantities that would not
> be expected to create a significant exposure hazard.  At the University
> of Chicago we badge about 1,000 employees through the Radiation Safety
> Office and our hospital badges another 7000 to 800.  Out of the 1,000
> that we badge probably not more than a dozen or two technically require
> badging.  The hospital probably has more that require badges for
> regulatory purposes, but still the majority never receive an exposure.
> Some of the ones that are badged, are badged because of limits we have
> set because of state inspections.  Others are badged purely because it is
> cheap insurance in case of litigation.  I think as we have seen in
> these discussions that most universities and hospitals have similar
> practices.  The level of training of ancillary personnel probably
> varies, but I don't think the level of training could qualify them as
> "radiation workers".  In fact I could imagine a circumstance where
> badging someone that is not a radiation worker could backfire.  I
> believe that badging someone who does not work with radiation does
> not allow you to declare their exposures to be occupational.  A few
> fogged badges could lead to exceeding the 100 mRem limit to any
> member of the public.  
> 
> This is not necessarily my opinion and certainly does not reflect
> any input from my employer and is hereby disclaimed.
> 
> Dale Boyce
> dale@radpro.uchicago.edu
> 
> 
>