Answer to Question #346 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Policy, Guidelines, and Regulations — Non-US Regulations and Guidelines

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

To know general basic knowlege for laboratory staffs who deal with radiation.

State and federal regulations specify the minimum acceptable content for radiation worker training programs. These requirements may be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Part 19.12. You can find a copy of these regulations at the NRC Web site. You should also note that your state may have independent regulations governing radiation protection (called an "Agreement State"). If this is the case, the minimum requirements the state has must be equivalent to NRC requirements. In addition to this bare-bones listing of topics to be included, you should add any job-specific information that makes sense for your employees. For example, laboratory technicians should be instructed in:

good work practices that will help them to minimize their radiation exposure
how to clean up spills of radioactive materials
what to do in the event of accidental skin contamination or uptake of radioactive materials
site-specific policies
how to perform radiation and/or contamination surveys
how to select radiation detection instruments
properties of various types of radiation and laboratory radionuclides ³²P, ³H, ¹⁴C, ³⁵S, etc.)
policies and procedures for ordering, inventorying, and disposing of radioactive materials-who to contact and how to reach them with questions regarding radiation or radioactivity
pregnant worker program

A very good reference that goes into radiation safety program requirements under a number of circumstances is Handbook of Management of Radiation Protection Programs, Kenneth Miller, CRC Press, 1992 (pages 287-346) In addition, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements has published a report titled Operational Radiation Safety Programs, NCRP Report #27, 1998. You can obtain ordering information on this report at the NCRP Web site . Finally, you can request an electronic copy of the University of Rochester's Radiation Worker Training Manual by contacting their Radiation Safety Officer Andrew Karam (and you should specify if you would like the document in PDF or Word 97 format).

Andrew Karam, CHP

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