Re: Slit Lamp Eye Exams

["Michael P. Grissom" <mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

To All,

It was decided several years ago that the slit lamp examination 
(SLE) in the old Radiation Medical Examination required by 
NAVMED-P5055, the Navy's Radiation Health Manual, was not 
necessary for a routinely exposed radiological worker population.  
This was a delayed recognition of the large doses required to 
have radiogenic cataract formation in the lens of the eye, which 
dose levels simply are not seen in non-accident activities (at 
least in the US Navy!).

The SLE may still be required for laser safety programs, 
particularly for persons using medical lasers of Class IIIB and IV, 
but that is not an ionizing radiation issue...

Regarding tritium, which somehow has gotten linked to this thread,
there are very few, if any, scenarios where reactor primary coolant 
water with any significant amount of tritium will not have readily 
detectable levels of gamma emitters which the Navy's ELTs have more 
than adequate detection equipment for.  The precautions taken are
very rigorous in the handling of reactor primary coolant water.  
Regarding radiation detection equipment for measuring tritium levels 
explicitly, it exists in the Navy but is primarily used for other 
scenarios.

Good Day (this is all my opinion/interpretation, not the Navy's!),

MikeG.

At 12:40 PM 5/21/96 -0500, you wrote:
>As an exiNuke, I just don't recall ever seeing anyone performing these
>surveys and until I got out of the Nav, I'd never heard of tritium...
-----------------------
Michael P. Grissom
Special Assistant, SLAC
mikeg@slac.stanford.edu
Phone:  (415) 926-2346
Fax:    (415) 926-3030