Re[2]: Reseachers do their monthly lab survey?

[epombier@mednet.med.miami.edu]

     We do it both ways.  The investigator is responsible for doing 
     complete surveys on a weekly basis, or after each use if use is less 
     frequent than weekly.  In addition Radiation Control personnel do spot 
     check surveys in each lab on a monthly basis.  These checks are not 
     comprehensive surveys but involve swipes of three or four high use 
     locations in a lab as well as a quick meter survey if gamma emitters 
     are used.  
     
     Investigator survey records are reviewed as a part of our routine 
     laboratory inspections.  We also do a complete independent 
     contamination survey at that time.  These inspection are performed on 
     a frequency ranging from quarterly to annually, depending on the use 
     level of the lab.  We also spend a good part of our technician 
     training seminar emphasizing the inportance of contamination control, 
     contamination surveys and the maintenance of records of such surveys.

     Ed Pombier                              University of Miami
     Director and Radiation Safety Officer   Radiation Control Center
     epombier@mednet.med.miami.edu           P.O. Box 016960 (R61)
                                             Miami, FL  33101 

      
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Reseachers do their monthly lab survey?
Author:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu at smtpmed
Date:    4/24/95 8:35 AM


George Xu asked,
     
>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!
     
This struck me as an odd question.  Kind of like asking state troopers if the 
"use" the operators of vehicles to buckle their own seatbelts.  Here at Ohio 
State, if you're an Approved Supervisor (lingua franca translation: 
Authorized User), your name is on the lab door, and you're responsible for 
getting those regular surveys done, be they required monthly or weekly.  And 
if a quarterly inspection shows they haven't been getting done (or "no use" 
documented), you're in violation.
     
I'd like to ask the converse.  Do any RSO's send their own limited staff out 
to insulate people from the reality of what they're about?  I think users of 
radioactivity ought to care enough about their own safe work environment to 
do such things for themselves.
Albert Lee Vest          The Ohio State University 
Health Physicist                 B-042 Graves Hall 
(614)292-0122                 333 West 10th Avenue
                                 Columbus OH 43210
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