[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Radioactive Material Training
Hello,
Many of you emailed me to request a summary of the suggestions I received
for radioactive material training course material after a posting I sent in
on 12/28/98. So, in addition to the responses that people sent to radsafe,
here is what people sent me:
Karen M. Gross
Phone: (215) 652-3363
Fax: (215) 652-3667
WP44C-2
P. O. Box 4
Merck & Co., Inc.
West Point, PA 19486
I.
> At San Jose State University we provide a 20 hour training program to our
> researchers (those without a background). This program includes
> aproximately
> 5 hours of practical exercises for the class. We have been doing this for
> about 1.5 years and have received extremely positive praise from the
> faculty
> and research assistants attending.
>
> The practical exercises include the following activities:
> 1. Setting up a work station in a laboratory
> 2. Identifying the appropriate posting or labeling
> 3. Selecting the required dosimeters, instruments, or protective clothing
> 4. Demonstrating the use of survey instruments
> 5. Donn/Doff protective clothing and dosimeters
> 6. Entering a simulated area and demonstrating ALARA techniques
> 7. Monitor for contamination and record the appropriate information
> 8. Respond to an emergency situation
> 9. Operate a glove box and fumehood
> 10. Operate a gamma cell irradiator
> 11. How to classify a laboratory (type I, II, III - or A, B, C)
>
> Many of these activities are examples in the textbook we use. I wrote the
> textbook because I was unable to find training material which I was
> comfordable with for the audience I train. If you are interested in the
> textbook, let me know, and I will direct you to our bookstore. It cost $12
> and we require the students to purchase the book. It is about 190 pages.
> There are no specific quotes to regulation and it is set up as lessons.
>
> We also require the student to obtain a "B" in the class to obtain a
> certificate. To earn a "B" they must complete all of the exercises in the
> course and obtain a score of at least 80 on the final. The final is a
> multible choice test with 50 questions.
>
> We do not include all of the practical exercises in the class. Normally we
> have at least 5 in the class due to time. I teach the course over the
> semester at about 1.5 hours per week. This way they don't have to loose
> time
> in the laboratory. We also teach the course in the evening. It is a one
> unit
> course if they wish University credit.
>
> I hope this is helpful for you. I understand the audience. I spent 4 years
> in a pharmaceutical company. That is why I began to develop the training
> material.
>
The textbook is entitled: Radiation Safety Training for General Laboratory
Workers. It is available through the San Jose State University Spartan
Bookstore for approximately $12 plus tax and shipping. I (John Pickering) am
the author, which is needed to identify the book. The address for the book
is as follows:
Spartan Bookstore
Textbook Department
1125 North Seventh Street
San Jose, CA 95112
E-mail for the bookstore: textbooks@spartanshops.sjsu.edu
or: http://spartanships.sjsu.edu/bookstore
> John Pickering, RSO
> San Jose State University
> johnjp@email.sjsu.edu
>
>
II.
1. the suggestions you have received for black light/flourescein
contamination training are all excellent and work well. I used to do
the same thing, but there are some tricks of course:
a) I used to contaminate a (decayed) bottle of P-32, eg ATP. Show it
around to the researchers at the beginning of the class as an example of
how a nuclide decays (by metering it to show no activity) and all the
while introducing the idea of decay. I set the contamination control
portion of the training for later in the session and by the time we got
there, things and people would light up under the blacklight all over
the place. One minor problem is you need to clean the room well before
your next training.
2. Strongly equate contamination control with Quality Control.
Researchers do not give a damn about their health and safety, but they
care strongly that their research is accurate and not compromised in
some way. Cross contamination will mess up an experiment in a big way.
As a collolary to this idea, it becomes easy to convince them to do
surveys when they buy into the "Quality Control" idea (after all, they
need to prove and document that they haven't messed up their work).
3. I highly recommend the videotapes on contamination control put out by
the University of Calgary. They show a researcher at work who messes it
all up, and although a little hokey, the researchers always appeared
interested in watching these tapes.
4. There is one other idea I would like to share, because it
flabbergasted me at how few people could answer the following question,
"How often does a single C14 atom emit radiation? Constantly? Sometimes?
Once in a while? Once? Never?" It is crucial that a researcher
understand that an atom only emits its radiation once. I used an over
head showing the C14 atom converting to N14 with its beta emission and
the neutron converting to a proton. It was effective in setting up the
concept of decay and then contamination control. Try this question at
the very beginning of class. You will be astounded at how many answer
it incorrectly.
Have a Merry Christmas. If you should talk to McKamey, tell him he's a
low life.
Larry Grimm largrimm@pacbell.net
III.
I do a lot of the Radiation Safety Orientations here at Yale. I
struggle with the hands-on part as you do, partly because I usually have
fairly big groups (30) and I am limited for time (2 hrs to cover
everything). A few things that I do find useful however include:
Doing demonstrations with seperate alpha, low energy beta, and high
energy beta sources. ie.. Alphas stopped by paper, high energy beta
stopped by plexiglass, etc..
Consumer products, including Fiestaware, lantern mantles, radium watch,
salt substitute, etc.. are all used to demonstrate common things that
are radioactive.
I have an assortment of vendor supplied stock vials that I pass around
so that the group can get familiar with the differences between them. I
also have shields, spill trays, waste containers and emergency supplies
on display which I use and move around.
We have a number of photo slides of what not to do in a lab, ie..
wearing shorts, carrying rad packages outside and getting on the campus
shuttle, surveying inappropriately, answering the phone with gloves
on,etc..
We also have a number of in lab slides of what to look out for or how to
do something. Pictures of things frequently contaminated: centrifuges,
vortex's, incubators, water baths, etc.. A series of pictures showing
how to do a wipe test survey.
We also have a number of survey meters and sources (consumer products)
available during the seminar for participants to practice taking
readings with.
**************************************************
Tammy Stemen, Assistant Radiation Safety Officer
Yale University - Radiation Safety Section
135 College Street
New Haven, CT 06510
Phone:(203)737-2140
Fax:(203)785-7588
mailto:tammy.stemen@yale.edu
http://www.yale.edu/oehs
**************************************************
Original Message:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I work in a pharmaceutical research facility and we have been revising
our
> > basic radioactive material training course for researchers this past
year.
> > Although it is much more effective and interesting that what we were
> > previously using, there is always the problem of boring the researchers.
> > In addition, there is definitely a large portion of training and
knowledge
> > about working safely with radioactive material that researchers will
only
> > gain from on-the-job training by experienced researchers.
> >
> > Keeping these two points in mind, I wanted to ask people what types of
> > demonstrations they include in their training to keep the researchers'
> > attention and to bridge that gap of "book" knowledge and
> > "practical/experience" knowledge which will minimize radiation exposures
> > and maximize regulatory compliance.
> >
> > Please reply to me in person at "karen_gross2@merck.com".
> >
> > Thanks in advance for you input.
> >
> > Karen M. Gross
> >
> > karen_gross2@merck.com
> >
> > Phone: (215) 652-3363
> > Fax: (215) 652-3667
> >
> > WP44C-2
> > P. O. Box 4
> > Merck & Co., Inc.
> > West Point, PA 19486
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html