Re: Personnel Dosimetry Records -Reply

[bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Bob Flood)]

>Don't necessarily agree with BRZGV.  True, the supervisor should know
>what his/her teams' exposure is, lifetime and YTD.  And the individual
>should definitely know what his/her exposure is; however, comparing
>exposures does little  to benefit the group/individual re: radiation
>exposure control.  Re: collective doses, sure.  This definitely comes into
>play when you are deriving ALARA goals.  If the individual wishes to
>divulge this information, so be it.  But individual exposures should not be
>posted, just the collective groups.
>

Dose info accompanied by other personal info such as SSN, home address,
etc., should never be generally posted for all to see, but there are ways to
post dose info without giving away a person's secrets. However, a supervisor
has every right and responsibility to know the doses of his/her staff.

A supervisor has much responsibility for monitoring the workers'
effectiveness at controlling their exposures, for ensuring that doses are
within expectations, and for taking steps to distribute dose among the
staff. All too often, one specific worker gets all the hot jobs and all the
dose because he or she is the one the boss can count on to get the job done
right the first time. This makes progress on the collective dose goal look
good at one worker's expense.

Having said that, I also see a supervisor as responsible for keeping the
dose reports containing names and dose strictly confidential. I've seen
group dose reports left in a common area for everyone to consult as the only
convenient way to learn of your current dose total, and the report displayed
names and SSNs with the doses! Everyone's SSN was public information, and
(surprise, surprise) there were problems with misuse of SSNs as a result.

In general, a listing of doses by SSN with no names in the report can work
very well, since each person can look up his/her dose without knowing anyone
else's dose. This idea falls apart when you have people without SSNs
(foreign nationals).

Bob Flood
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(415) 926-3793     bflood@slac.stanford.edu
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.