Re: Contaminated Hosp Pipes

[Al Tschaeche <antatnsu@pacbell.net>]

Bob Flood wrote:
> 
> At 05:11 PM 6/20/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >This looks like another "non-problem" dose wise.  I cannot believe what
> >I see on radsafe recently.  This plus the guard's clothing plus
> >conatminated lead, none of which will produce ANY significant dose to
> >anyone.
> 
> I have to defend the guard's clothing practice. When rubbed, synthetic
> fabrics develop an electrostatic charge, and that will attract the noble
> gas decay products that are of no dose consequence at all. BUT...the alarms
> in the frisker booths are set at levels where, if the contamination is on
> the skin and is long-lived, it would be appropriate to detect it and get it
> removed.  The polyester fabric causes noble gas false alarms when one
> considers dose, but the alarm levels are appropriate for other dose
> scenarios that really do happen.

Agreed that the natural radioactivity on clothing is a nuisance.  I have
"lost" my pants several times because of radon decay products. 
Fortunatly the contamination took place in the morning and by afternoon
I got the pants back.  But the point is: we MUST distinguish what we do
for operational convenience from what we do for health and safety
purposes.  A member of the public reading some of the things on radsafe
lately would probably think we are in real trouble when all that is
happening is that we are inconvenienced by low levels of contamination
and there are no health and safety problems at all.  However, that
message doesn't seem to get out to the public.  Al Tschaeche, CHP
antnsuat@pacbell.net