The "Pig Pen" effect

[dj_strom@ccmail.pnl.gov]

RADSAFERS,

I'm looking for the earliest reference to the "Pig Pen" effect in 
radiation protection.  This effect, named after the Charles Schultz 
character in the Peanuts(TM) comic strip who walks around in a cloud of 
dust and debris, is the phenomenon of air being more contaminated near a 
worker than at some distance away.  The explanation for the Pig Pen 
effect is simply that the worker is generating the aerosol.  It is 
important because it impacts the degree to which an air sample 
represents the concentration breathed by a worker.

If you know who first coined or used the term, and a reference for it, I 
would be most grateful.  I have heard it attributed to the late Roger 
Caldwell, then at NUMEC in Apollo, PA, in the late 1960s, but this is 
apocryphal.

Please respond to me privately, and I will post a composite answer on 
RADSAFE.

- Dan

The opinions expressed above are my own, and have not been reviewed or 
approved by Battelle, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or the 
U.S. Department of Energy.

Daniel J. Strom, Ph.D., CHP
Staff Scientist
Health Protection Department K3-56
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
P.O. Box 999
Richland, WA 99352-0999 USA
(509) 375-2626
(509) 375-2019 fax
dj_strom@pnl.gov