Re: Is Health Physics Really A Profession?

[loc <loc@icx.net>]

As a former hydrogeologist in the hazardous waste industry, I have
worked sites where not only did I use a meter to screen for volatile
organic contamination in soil cores, but I also acted as health &
safety officer, taking readings in the breathing zone to determine
the need for personal protective equipment (PPE).  It is naive to
assume that every small job to be screened for radioactive
contamination, particularly in the site investigation arena, will
have a HP present.  There is a need for a meter that a scientific
professional in another field can understand and effectively use.

I've long felt that the mystique (and lack of education in most
required college-level science programs) regarding radiation, has
meant that many sites which should have at least been screened for
radioactive contamination have instead completely ignored the
possibility.  Remember, the decision makers in this regard are
generally your civil and environmental engineers, geologists,
biologists, and chemists.

My suggestion is to add a rad meter to the site-investigation tool
box, along with the caveat that an HP should be on call in case
anything above expected background or a de minimis level should
surface.  Once there is a potential exposure scenario, then we need
to call in the expert.  The de minimis level concept (for example, 5
ppm volative organics in the breathing zone) is used when deciding
whether to go into PPE and/or call on a industrial hygienist in the
haz contamination scenario, so radsafers should consider how they
might handle such a situation as described above.

However, I also need to note that one soil-boring job where I wore
the field geologist hat at Savannah River Site took 3 times longer
than it should have, due mostly to SRS HP techs who wouldn't show up
at the job site unless it suited their schedule (as opposed to the
schedule of those who needed their services), who insisted on
working hours that were restrictively short due to their budget
constraints (drilling jobs generally run dawn to dusk, in an effort
to minimize personnel and travel costs), and who preferred to shut
down jobs rather than determine if a reading was a true potential
problem or just an accumulation of radon (as they all turned out to
be).  Also, I was unimpressed with the level of knowledge
demonstrated by these technicians; they only seemed to know how to
use their meters, not their judgement.  Experiences like these
reflect badly on the HP profession where it intersects with the haz
waste industry, so the desire to handle rad screening using existing
site personnel is understandable, although not always technically
the best decision.

Feedback is welcome.

--Susan Gawarecki

Bill Lipton wrote:

> However, there
> seems
> to
> be a widely held belief that, to practice health physics, you don't need
> a
> health physicist; just an "idiot proof survey meter."
>
--
=========================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., P.G.
Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee
(423) 483-1333, fax (423) 482-6572
E-mail loc@icx.net
=========================================================


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