RE: Late charges for unreturned badges

["Patrick J. McDermott" <mcdermot@REHS.rutgers.edu>]

Hi all,

Bill, I think you came down a little hard.  Having problems with lost 
and unreturned badges (especially in the University community) is 
nothing new and MANY are looking for ways to IMPROVE their 
programs.  RADSAFE should be a resource to help all involved by 
sharing experiences.  Let's be real... if you have a researcher who 
has lost a badge and has not worked with P-32 for a month, are 
you going to spend much time beyond an interview to insure they 
have not recieved a potential exposure? No, because they probably 
didn't recieve a dose, but that does not mean they still don't need a 
badge... They may work with 20 mCi next week. However, if 
someone in your Cardiac Cath. lab loses a badge, you will spend 
considerable effort because of the relative risk of recieving a 
dose...It seems that Andrew Karem does this.

My opinion only.
Patrick McDermott
Rutgers University
mcdermot@rehs.rutgers.edu

 < I am even more astounded at your statement that
<compliance with monitoring requirements, "... is only really a 
<concern
<with Radiology and Cardiac Catheterization Lab because of their 
<relatively high doses."  This implies that these are the only users 
<who require monitoring.  If this is the case, you are probably 
<better off not monitoring the others; perhaps relying on area 
<monitors to alert you to changing conditions.  However, a 
<monitoring program that is not taken seriously is worse than no 
<program at all, since it becomes an enabler of poor, and possibly 
<illegal, practices. 


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