Re: Ask a Health Physicist service

[rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu (Ron L. Kathren)]

Ron Amoling is not, of course, the first person to raise this question re
the name 'health physics'.  Quite a number of years ago, then-HPS president
Merril Eisenbud led an effort to change the name of the HPS.  At one time
back in the 60's, I assembled a listing of job titles under which HP's
worked.  As I recall, I ended up with more than 50 different titles.  Some
of the more relevant were:  Radiation hygienist, radiological protection
engineer, radiological engineer, health chemist, radiological physicist,
and, yes, more generic terms such as industrial hygienist and safety engineer.  

Personally, I still prefer the term health physicist, and I generally find
it advantageous to be asked the question "what is a health physicist?" as it
gives you an unprecedented opportunity to fully gain the attention of the
person with whom you are speaking and to explain the how and why of your
presence and interest.  It is a great educational opportunity, too -- many
times I have been introduced as a health physicist with the added comment
that the person doing the intro did not know what that was -- a real golden
opportunity.

Finally, to inject another perspective, there are other confusing
professional titles (not that this justifies ours!).  For example, what is a
'stationary engineer'?  One that doesn't move?  Or one that makes
letterhead?  (GRIN, GRIN, GRIN).  And, of course, a microbiologist is a
biologist shorter than 150 cm!

Have a good weekend, folks.

Ron











At 09:57 AM 8/8/97 -0500, Ron Amoling wrote:
>Hi..
>
>Good idea, although I'll bet one of the first questions will be "what 
>is a Health Physicist?"
>
>Not many folks outside of the HP profession even know what a Health 
>Physicist is.....and certainly from the two words, it's not obvious that 
>it has anything to do with radiation protection.
>
>Perhaps we need to think up a better name for ourselves......like 
>Radiation Safety Specialist,  Radiation Protection Dude(tte), etc?....any
other suggestions?
>
>In fact, I'd guess that outside of nuke plants, most facilities refer 
>to their HP's as Radiation Safety Officer, Radiation Safety Tech, 
>Radiation Safety something or other.....so it's evident as to what 
>that individual's profession is.
>
>Ron Amoling
>amolingr@joslab.harvard.edu
>
>