RE: More Funky Stuff From Landauer in March

["Mcelrath Susan S." <MCELRATHS@rscpo1.wilm.ge.com>]

This brings to mind a similar event involving a finger badge that happened 
to me a few years ago. I keep three rings in the same box which usually sit 
in my desk drawer the entire month. Once, one of the rings read over 1 REM 
(I think it was about 1300 mrem or so but I don't have the report in front 
of me) while the other two showed nothing. The rings had been in my desk the 
entire time, they had not been used, and they had not been separated from 
one another. I suppose a cosmic ray with pinpoint accuracy...After all the 
appropriate documentation was done, the exposure was written off as a fluke, 
most likely due to a processor error.

Interestingly enough, in Q4 1993, I sweated out a very unexpected high 
reading from a neutron badge (TLD plus albedo). Turns out the reading from 
an area badge was mistakenly entered for an individual's report. Whew! But 
it amazes me that errors like this happen - even with all the barcoding.
 ----------
From: root
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: More Funky Stuff From Landauer in March
Date: Monday, May 22, 1995 2:11PM

I just received my 1Q and March TLD results from Landauer last week and had
one
strange and unexplained "exposure" which may or may not be related to 
previous
discussions on radsafe.

We have ONE researcher whose finger badge showed a 240 mRem exposure while 
her
body badge shows nothing. The kicker is she swears she didn't use either
dosimeter because she hasn't been using any radioactive materials in the 
last
few months. She also stated that BOTH dosimeters spent the entire time in 
her
desk drawer right next to each other.  All the rest of our 450 dosimeters
showed nothing out of the ordinary.  Any ideas??

Carol Lentz
Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research
Ann Arbor, MI
lentzc@aa.wl.com