Andy Karam, HPS Marketing Committee
Tucked away on the Health Physics Society (HPS) website in the Member’s Section are the HPS committees, where valuable, information-packed links are found. Therefore, I wanted to launch the Committee Profile feature by telling you about the Standards Committee (chaired by Antonio Triventi), how the standards work, and what they have to offer. With 40 standards available for download by members, there’s bound to be at least one thing you’ll want to take a gander at.
What the Standards Committee does is to help develop accredited standards that affect various aspects of our profession. If you’re trying to set up a tritium bioassay program or a company rad worker training program, to develop radiation safety policies and procedures for x-ray diffraction or fluorescence analysis equipment, to start up a cargo security screening system, or to work in any of a number of other areas – there’s a standard you can download to help you with your task. With two major subcommittees – N43 (Equipment for Non-Medical Radiation Applications, chaired by Craig Jones) and N13 (Radiation Protection, chaired by Matthew Barnett) the Standards Committee works directly with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop the standards that you and I can download for free.
How the standards process works begins with selecting a topic – something for which no standard yet exists, or an existing standard that’s become stale, perhaps due to changing technology or updated practices. Then the appropriate work group chair needs to form a working group, likely beginning with cajoling a poor, overworked, highly qualified health physicist (HP) to chair the working group and then pleading with other HPs to fill out the working group. These people might all be HPS members, but they might also come from any of a number of government agencies or industry or even be individual HPs with an interest in (and, hopefully, knowledge of) the topic in question. And then they start to work!
Some of the most important work comes at the start, when the members of the working group scope out their work. If they’re revising an existing standard (for example), then they’re trying to decide what needs to be changed – are they doing minor updates and revisions or a major overhaul. In either case, exactly what needs to be changed and why? What will the new standard look like? Do they need new graphics as well? What’s the best way to present the information? Who’s the intended reader and what level of writing and technical information is appropriate for them? And so forth. For a new standard, they’re building it from scratch, addressing those questions and more. And then the researching and writing begins.
The hardest part, however, comes at the end – that’s when the members of the working group have to put all the pieces together and then reach consensus amongst themselves on their work. And after that, it’s sent out for review/approval by the respective standards committee, where comments are provided and addressed. Sometimes the comment resolution phase can take many months, and it is possible not every comment will be accepted. It’s a lot of work, but when it all comes together it’s a nice feeling – almost as nice as seeing the final document online and ready for download. And – in case you’re wondering – yes, I’ve been through the process a few times, albeit not as a member of the HPS Standards Committee, and I’ve got a lot of respect for those who keep signing up for more. Especially since this work tends to be done after dinner and on weekends – and for no pay.
Anyhow – there’s a lot more I could say, but I’m already past the word count, so I should wrap up here. If you’ve read this far and you’re already using these standards – good for you! And, if your schedule permits, contact Antonio, Craig, or Matthew to ask them if you can help out! If, on the other hand, you’re not all that familiar with what they’ve done, click here and take a look – see what’s there that looks useful, or just plain interesting.