Re: Reduction of dosimetry for P-32

[coogen_michael@hq2ccgw.hq.dla.mil]

I agree.  It would appear that you have enough historical data to reduce you 
dosimetry program.  Good protocols for use of P-32 will usually decrease the 
risk of potential exposure received.  I believe that excessive monitoring 
ususally defeats the purpose for which it was intended.  If I had your employees
and historical data, I would reduce. Might want to consider monitoring the area 
of use for P-32 rather than individuals.  mike


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Reduction of dosimetry for P-32
Author:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu at hq2ccgw
Date:    8/17/95 11:17 AM


A few additional comments in favor of eliminating dosimeters used by 
individuals who only work with small quantities of P-32 in well-shielded 
experiments in research labs:

1.     The cases of cancer that might occur following low doses of radiation 
that could result in litigation primarily involve leukemia or deep solid 
tumors from penetrating (gamma) radiation.  Since P-32 is a beta emitter, we 
are talking about the potential for skin cancer of the fingers or, to a much 
lesser extent, the other areas of the skin not protected by clothing.

2.      The minimum detectable dose for a TLD ring badge from our vendor is 
on the order of 30 mrem/month.  This translates to 360 mrem/y as the 
potential "missed" dose.  Still negligible compared to the current limit of 
50 rems/y, but not necessarily "zero".

3.      The cost of dosimeters is not just the cost of the badges.  You have 
to include all of the administrative costs, including distribution and 
collection, investigation of late and lost badges, assigning doses (even zero 
doses) to lost badges, and obtaining radiation exposure histories (again, 
mostly zeros).

4.      The reengineering programs in many of our institutions are concerned 
with short-term savings, and that makes arguments based on future costs 
(most likely to some other unit of the institution, perhaps decades from 
now) very hard to sell.

Out of 800 badges processed each month, we routinely end up with about 790 
with no detectable dose.  I would like to reduce the number of badges we use 
to 250 to 300 per month.  If a person is nervous about working with small 
amounts of P-32, we will, of course, still provide that person with dosimetry.


Frank E. Gallagher, III, CHP
RSO, Univ. of California, Irvine   92717-2725 
Voice: (714) 824-6904, Fax: (714) 824-8539 
E-mail: fegallag@uci.edu