Health physicists

We do not attempt to discuss in depth decontamination methods for radiological wastes. A health physicist should be immediately available to assist with decontamination of radioactively contaminated personnel or equipment. 

Employees outside immediate release area who assist on-scene incident commander All activities coordinated through individual in charge of the incident command system Examples industrial hygienists or health physicists providing guidance on PPL selection Individuals likely to witness or discover a release and who are trained to initiate emergency response sequence... 

If levels of radiation above natural background are discovered, a plant manager should consult a health physicist. At levels greater than 2 mrem/hour, aU industrial site activities should cease until the site has been assessed by an industrial health scientist or licenced environmental engineers. 

It is occasionally necessary for personnel to enter some of these facilities. This requires considerable time for decontamination and placement of local shielding. The operations that will be performed are carefully planned and rehearsed in order to get the entry over with as swiftly as possible. A special group of employees, the health physicists, are responsible for radiation safety throughout the plant, and they provide close monitoring of these entries. 

These are only approximations, and the actual dose to the fetus must be calculated by a qualified and competent medical physicist or health physicist. They are reasonable estimates, however, and, for most equipment, are likely to be high rather than low estimates. 

All patients from the site of an irradiator attack should be evaluated for radiation sickness, and a health physicist or medical physicist should be consulted to attempt to determine the radiation dose to each patient. If the patient is conscious, it is essential to get as much information as possible about their exact location, travel paths, and the amount of time they spent in each place near the site of the irradiator. For example, if an irradiator is placed in an elevator, persons working on the 50th floor of a high-rise will generally receive more radiation dose than patients on lower levels. On the other hand, a person who has a nonstop ride to an upper level may receive fewer doses than one whose trip to the 10th... 

Several times each year, I receive phone calls or e-mail from women who have been advised to terminate their pregnancy after receiving only a few X-rays, some of which do not even image the uterus. Many medical personnel continue to fear that all fetal radiation exposure is harmful, and they inappropriately recommend therapeutic abortion. Before making this recommendation, medical personnel must perform a fetal dose calculation or ask a knowledgeable medical physicist or health physicist to perform these calculations. No recommendation to terminate a pregnancy should be made until these calculations have been performed and evaluated by a competent medical physicist or health physicist. 

Senior Health Physicist MJW Corporation Rochester, New York... 

This section will describe clinical practice and research concerning methods for reducing the toxic effects of exposure to uranium. However, because some of the treatments discussed may be experimental and unproven, this section should not be used as a guide for treatment of exposures to uranium. When specific exposures have occurred, poison control centers, health physicists, and medical toxicologists... 

You may remember the famous west stands of the Chicago football stadium where the world s first nuclear reactor was constructed by Fermi and his group. After I had been in Chicago for awhile, a hot lab was set up in the west stands to handle particularly active material. It wasn t quite ready when I had the distinction of being the first person told to try it out by centrifuging some hot material. When I returned from the hot lab and entered New Chem, I set off the counter 50 feet from the door. Health physicists took all my clothes and swabbed every orifiee. I never was compensated for the clothes I lost and don t remember how I got home that day. 

Clinicians seeking additional help with fetal dose estimation can locate their state Radiation Control/Radiation Protection Contact through the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors, hic. (CRCPD) Web site at http //www.crcpd.org/map/map. asp (last accessed 1-29-06). hi addition, the Health Physics Society (HPS) Web site contains a hst of certified Health Physicists at http //www.hpsl.org/aahp/manbers/ members.htm (last accessed 1-29-06) who can help with fetal dose estimation. 

The FDA has approved the oral administration of Prussian Blue (ferric hexacy-anoferrate) to treat internal contamination with cesium and thallium (16). Prussian Blue works by increasing fecal excretion of these elements. Patients require treatment only if the exposure dose of Cs exceeds the annual limit (200 uCi from inhalation or 100 uCi from ingestion) (5). Clinicians should consult with a health physicist to determine whether exposure has exceeded the annual limit. Treatment for exposures between one and ten times the annual limit is controversial. However, exposures exceeding ten times the limit usually indicate the need for treatment. Once treatment has reduced the level of internal contamination below the annual limit, Prussian Blue treatment can stop. However, the clinician can use his or her discretion to discontinue treatment if residual levels remain above the annual limit after prolonged treatment (5). 

As with any construction project, a construction permit must be obtained from the local authority. All local construction codes must be adhered to regarding the electricity and water supply and fire safety. A health physicist or a medical physicist should be consulted to address the issues of shielding and personnel traffic in restricted areas. A radioactive material license from the appropriate authority must be in possession for the use of PET radiopharmaceuticals, before the PET center goes into operation. Authorized physicians must be included on the license. 

Radioactivity has heen the concern of physicists, who set up rules aud regulations for the protection of the general public and health personnel handling radioactive materials. At most institutions, the commercially available radiopharmaceuticals were managed hy a responsible staff of health physicists. 

Health physics is concerned with protection of people from radiation. Since the background radiation has been, is, and will always be on our planet at about the same level everywhere, there is not much a health physicist can do to protect individuals or populations from background radiation. Hence, health physics is concerned with protection of people from man-made radiation. 

A health physicist performs many tasks. He or she, most importantly,... 

Use protective covers, if this is the suggestion of the health physicist. 

All containers must be checked by a Health Physicist for radioactive contamination before packaging and the radiation levels emanating from the package monitored by a Health Physicist... 

In larger organizations, the control of radiation hazards is the responsibility of specialists known as health physicists or, sometimes, health chenusts. Their main duty is to ensure that work is carried out without hazard to the health of the people involved. 

Radioactive Wastes. With the exception that radioactive wastes cannot be destroyed chemically, the problem of radioactive waste disposal is similar in nature to the problem of chemical or sanitary waste disposal. Thus, discharged radioactive wastes can contaminate air or drinking water and, if absorbed by an organism, can cause biological damage. Health physicists and biologists have established the maximum concentra-... 

With radiological hazards, the SAP can seek the advice of specialist staff, Accredited Health Physicists at the station, who can advise on hazards, measurements and the precautions necessary. The engineers appointed as SAPs will, however, have had training in this field, thus enabling them to determine the aspects surrounding the safety of the work. 

Qualifications of health physicists, safety analysts, technicians, and engineers can be obtained from the many texts relating to the organization, fimction, and running of a good health and safety department. There are many good references with details. ... 

The terms rads and rems are still used by most American health physicists in their daily work, and the current NRC regulations use these terms, as they do the curie and its derivative units. However, there are internationally accepted SI units for dose and also for activity. The equivalent units are ... 

In order to provide safety equivalent to that which would be provided by a Type B(U) package, the design may include requirements that only gaseous materials should be allowed to be vented, that filters or alternative containment might be used, or that venting may only be performed under the direction of a qualified health physicist. 

CHP Certified health physicist Chemical Hygiene Plan... 

Safety Professionals Industrial Hygiene Health Physics Occupational Health Nursing Occupational Medicine Certified Safety Professional (CSP) Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) Certified Health Physicist (CHP) Certified Occupational Health Nurse (COHN and COHN-S) Board Certification in Occupational Medicine (BCOH) Board of Certified Safety Professionals American Board of Industrial Hygiene American Board of Health Physics American Board of Occupational Health Nurses American Board for Preventive Medicine... 

In theory, the IH is responsible for chemical, biological,physical, and radioactive health hazards within the work environment. In practice, no one individual can be an expert in all of these areas. Control of workplace health hazards has become so complex that in workplaces where most or all of these hazards are present, the management of these hazards is assigned to a team of occupational health professionals. Such a team might include an occupational physician, occupational nurse, safety professional, health physicist (radiation protection), and others. Workplaces with high-risk microbiological exposures may also employ biological safety professionals. 

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