Re: reb and rem

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

Paul --

I knew that you would finally come through!!!!  Great job (as always).

Ron

At 09:04 AM 8/7/98 -0400, FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV wrote:
>The following is long and boring, but there is a nice story at the end - one
>that Ron Kathren kindly left for me to repeat.
>
>As Ron mentioned, first there was the roentgen (abbreviated into the 60s
>with a small r rather than the capital R used today). For what its worth
>the curie was abbreviated as "c" until the early 60s.
>
>Then in the 1940s Herb Parker introduced  the rep (which the ICRU
>changed in 1953 into the rad) and the reb (which he himself changed into
>the rem).
>
>The rep, reb, rem , and rad were chosen because they began with r,
>were short, and easy to pronounce.
>
>In his report of Nov 1955 to the Commission on Radiologic Units,
>Standards and Protection,  Herb Parker (speaking in the third person)
>notes:    "In the atomic energy program beginning in 1942, one was faced
>with the practical problem of adding the doses received by a large group
>of workers from quantum radiation, alpha , beta and neutron radiation.
>Parker was led to a coterie system that had to be readily communicable.
>He used rep as an equivalent roentgen, based originally on X=83
>[ergs/gram] but changed to x=93 and rem as a biological unit obtained by
>multiplying the components of the dose in rep by appropriate RBE
>multipliers."
>
>In the above mentioned report, he cites his paper  "Tentative Dose Units
>for Mixed Radiations" Radiology 54:257-260, 1950. which Ron also spoke
>of.
>
>>From the 1950 paper in Radiology:  "The writer recommends as a
>compromise the adoption of a practical energy absorption dose unit
>called the rep and defined so that one rep represents an energy
>absorption dose in irradiated tissue of exactly 93 ergs/gram" and "one
>rem is that dose of any ionizing radiation which produces a relevant
>biological effect equal to that produced by one roentgen of high-voltage
>x-radiation"
>
>"The rep is an abbreviation of roentgen equivalent physical.  The rem is
>an abbreviation of roentgen equivalent man or mammal. The more
>obvious choice of reb (roentgen equivalent biological) is avoided
>because of the confusion in speech between rep and reb. Both rep and
>rem should be used as words not three spoken initials." 
>
>BTW, the rep was sometimes referred to as the "parker" or the "roentgen
>equivalent parker."
>
>In the intro to Ron Kathren's compilation of Parker's papers, Ron tells the
>following story that explains Parker's comment about "the confusion in
>speech"  between reb and rep.
>
>During one of Parker's early presentations he was suffering from a cold
>and because his speech was slurred, the audience couldn't tell the
>difference between "reb" and "rep". To avoid future confusion, the name
>was changed from reb to rem.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Paul Frame
>Professional Training Programs
>ORAU
>framep@orau.gov
>www.orau.gov/ptp/ptp.htm
>
>

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html