Re: Reseachers do their monthly lab survey?

[LENTZC <LENTZC@aa.wl.com>]

Hi George,

Our facility has about 400 isotope users in approx. 100 labs. We have our
researchers perform their own wipes, count them and keep their own records. Of
course your next question is "how do we know they are doing them?" We created
an isotope purchasing form in which the researcher has to report the dates of
their last two wipe tests. All purchase orders for isotopes are reviewed by the
Safety office before they go to purchasing. We deal with recalcitrant wipers in
different ways depending on their past performance, their desire to implement
an effective system for remembering to do their wipes, etc. Some people who do
their wipe tests but don't do them AT LEAST EVERY 31 DAYS get reminders via
E-mail. Researchers who miss an entire month get their orders delayed until
they perform a wipe test. If we have repeated problems, we will (and have had
to on 2 occasions) discontinue their orders for a specified period of time.
This usually gets their attention. We review researchers' records periodically,
usually during our quarterly lab audits. To date, we have not found anyone who
has falsified a wipe test record.

This system, which we have had in place for about a year, has brought our
compliance up from 50% at our last NRC inspection to about 90% complete
compliance. Every time a researcher orders an isotope they are reminded that
monthly wipes are mandatory. It's working well for us.

Carol Lentz
Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research
lentzc@aa.wl.com
>Hi, Radsafers:
>
>Any one of you use the researchers/labs to do their own monthly lab
>swipe/survey and you count the sample and keep the records? I would like to
>hear your comments. Thanks!
>
>BTW, I was thinking about that maybe it is time to have FAQs for this e-mail
>group.  Questions about inventory software should be included in the FAQ and
>be updated as needed.
>
>George Xu
>RSO
>Rensselaer Poly. Institute