RE: Low Positive Doses in Personnel Monitoring

[mdater@nexstar.com]

Mark Dater
04/22/97 09:38 AM

Hello,
During a recent inspection by the State of Colorado( with an auditing NRC
inspector in tow) the discussion of dosimetry badges of course came up.
At question was the  prevention of false positives. Our Lab scientists were
leaving their lab coats (with monitoring badges attached) on the back of
work bench seats and the State made the observation that we could not tell
if a positive reading was real because we had no control badge at each
spot. And in one case a person hung his finger ring badge near a waste
container of Rad material.(...That was the," straw") The State wanted us to
use a control box in the hall with all personnel badges and rings being
placed in there daily.(This was not feasible to us .) We opted to assign
each lab person a hook for their lab coat. Then in each area of lab coats
we are placing a control badge. This I know seems an extreme measure (since
we use mostly 32P) however when you are asked to prove a reading without a
control your guess is as good as mine. We had area monitor badges around
the lab area but this was deemed not to be suficient.  I am interested in
this discussion of low positives because we have had some. (with  possible
exposure very unlikely).
Thank you,
Mark Dater
Nexstar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
EH&S Department

These are my comments and not in any way those of my company.