Re: Landauer's New Badge

[Andrew Karam <akaram@safety.rochester.edu>]

I think that the new Landauer system is a good move for several reasons.
By allowing bi-monthly or quarterly read cycles, it reduces our
administrative load considerably.  The monthly cost per unit will remain
the same as our current film badges while, due to increases in film costs,
film badges are slated to increase in cost (most of the film is made here
in Rochester by Kodak, who is having some tough times).  

The lower reporting threshold has both good and bad, but I'm willing to
live with the bad (pretty well summarized by others already).  I would
rather have this information (ie doses of less than 10 mrem) and deal with
nervous workers than to not have it.  It may give us the opportunity to
justify badging fewer people by giving hard numbers for annual dose rather
than "Well, I know they're receiving less than 120 mrem" (I know, 120 mrem
in a year is nothing for us to worry about, but it can still make people
nervous).  

All in all, I like the new technology and we're really looking forward to
implementing it in the near future.

Andy

Andrew Karam, MS, CHP				
RSO, University of Rochester			  
(716) 275-3781 (voice)						
(716) 256-0365 (fax)
akaram@safety.rochester.edu

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled  but a fire to be lighted" 
 Plutarch
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