The necessity of performing a survey during and after work with radioactive material is well understood; however, some workers do not always perform these surveys or do not perform the surveys well. It is possible that they forget or perhaps do not decide to do a survey because they feel they are such careful workers that they would never cause or spread contamination.

An Ohio hospital was recently cited and fined $3000 by regulators for contamination at the facility. The inspector conducted a contamination survey after the hospital employees performed their regular daily survey. The inspector found eight areas of contamination missed by the hospital personnel and determined there were deficiencies in the ways the surveys were conducted.

A proper and calibrated survey meter is required when performing a survey for radioisotopes other than tritium. Before use of a survey meter, perform a preoperational check of he meter. Check for physical damage, loose cables and battery condition. Check the meter against a known source to ensure it is responding properly.

Care should be taken to avoid contamination. Hold the probe about 1 cm from the surface and move the probe laterally at a rate of 2 to 5 cm/second. Listen to the audio response. Since a survey meter only indicates the presence of radiation a wipe sample will need to be taken to determine if there is removable contamination in areas where elevated counts are noted with a survey meter.

Wipe samples should be taken to monitor for tritium or to determine whether elevated counts detected with a survey meter indicate fixed or loose contamination. Wipe an area of 100 cm2 (typically a broad “S” shape will approximate that area). Suggested areas for performing wipes include:

• Doorknobs, light switches, refrigerator and freezer handles, drawer handles and faucets.
• General use areas such as desks, computer stations, and the floor at laboratory entrances.
• Radioactive material use and storage areas, fume hoods, waste containers, and floor areas near work or storage areas.

Decontaminate any areas in which removable contamination is detected. Resurvey the area to ensure the contamination has been removed. Note those results on your survey log. Document all survey results and maintain all survey records for review by regulatory officials. Current survey data or a sign indicating the location of the survey results should be posted in the work area.

Most individuals who work in a radionuclide use laboratory will eventually participate in an inspection by a regulatory agency. The participation may be as brief as an inspector asking a few questions or observing procedures being performed or it could be extensive and involve many hours of the individual’s time. To get through an inspection with minimum violations and stress it helps to know what an inspector’s job is. Inspectors try to determine the status of regulatory compliance by reviewing records and by observing and communicating with laboratory personnel.

The proper way to prepare for an inspection is to do things right routinely. Always follow institutional policies and procedures. Document required information and keep it organized. Keep work areas clean and orderly at all times. Individuals who follow these suggestions should never be concerned about an inspection.

Unless requested otherwise, keep working during an inspection. Individuals should work with confidence and not fear the inspector. Be courteous and professional with the inspector. Provide all requested records promptly. Maintain a positive attitude and give honest answers to questions. Don’t hesitate to say “I don’t know but I’ll find out.” Write down any deficiencies noted and contact the Radiation Safety Program for help correcting them.

The following are examples of questions you might expect from an inspector.

• What radiation sources do you work with?
• What training have you had?
• How do your obtain your radioactive material?
• Where do you store your radioactive material?
• What do you do with the empty box from radioactive material deliveries?
• How much radioactive material do you typically use at one time?
• How do you keep track of your radioactive material inventory?
• How do our survey your work area?
• How do you know your meter is working properly?
• What do you do after you have finished working with radioactive material?
• What do you do if you find contamination?
• How would you decontaminate your work area?
• If you use tritium, how do you perform a survey?
• Where/how is your radioactive waste stored?
• What option concerning radiation exposure do you have if you become pregnant?
• Where do you eat your lunch?
• What do you do if you leave the lab and you are the last individual to leave?
• What do you do if a stranger walks into your radionuclide laboratory?

In both federal and state regulations for the safe use of radioactive materials, the requirements for labeling containers, rooms and areas as to the presence of radiation or radioactivity are strictly spelled out. To have radioactivity or radiological conditions that are not appropriately posted or labeled will certainly result in an institution being cited if the situation is identified by regulators.

Likewise empty containers that do not contain radioactivity MUST have their labels and markings defaced or there should be some indication that the container no longer holds radioactive material. A local institution was cited during a summer inspection for placing a container bearing the words “Radioactive Material” in the trash without first defacing the label. Quoting the inspector “empty-but-labeled containers are confusing and cause unnecessary concern”. State officials are always contacted when labeled containers are found at local landfills because it is always assumed that there is licensed material within the container. When the container is traced back to a licensee a citation will be issued for either failing to have control of licensed material or failing to deface an empty container.

Please be sure that you remove or deface all markings and labels from any container in which radioactive material is no longer present before disposing of the container.

Headline News - November 21, 2005 - An Australian man set off a food irradiation scare when he called a radio station to report that his pork chops glowed in the dark. Health officials say the glow isn’t dangerous – and that it’s caused by a harmless bacteria known as pseudomonas fluorescens. They say the bacteria usually appears when meat is starting to go bad. This type of bacteria is naturally present in meat and fish but it multiplies quickly if food is not stored at the correct temperature. Health officials receive an average of two telephone calls a month about glowing meat, with consumers generally afraid that the meat is radioactive or has been irradiated.

This incident points out what may be a common misconception about food irradiation…it is dangerous and will make your food radioactive. Quite the contrary, food preservation by irradiation offers great potential benefit with no radiation risk to the consumer. The process for food irradiation is simple. Containers of food move on a conveyor belt into a shielded chamber where radioactive sources (typically kilocurie) irradiate the food with gamma radiation. Similar to microwaves in an oven, the gamma rays pass through the food. The food does not become radioactive, in the same way that a chest x-ray does not make the body of a patient radioactive.

If you would like additional information on food irradiation, please consult the fact sheet that the Health Physics Society has available on their web site: http://hps.org/documents/foodirradiationfactsheet.pdf

The term “mixed waste” means a waste that contains both radioactive waste and a RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976) hazardous waste. Mixed wastes result from work done with a hazardous labeled compound (H-3 labeled Dioxin) or the use of radioactive material and a hazardous material (S-35 Methionine used with a toluene-based scintillation cocktail). If the half-life of the radioisotope is under 120 days the radioactive hazard can be decayed (typically 10 half-lives) before disposal leaving only the chemical hazard to be disposed off. Materials with half-lives of greater than 120 days can not be decayed on site and need to be shipped off-site for disposal. Off-site disposal options for these “mixed waste materials” are very limited and very expensive.

Since we are all familiar with radioactive wastes, the following is presented to help familiarize you with the hazardous component of a mixed waste material. RCRA hazardous wastes are defined in 49 CFR 261 and identified by either chemical characteristic or classified listing.

Characteristic hazardous wastes exhibit one or more of the following characteristics: Ignitability: Ignitable wastes are wastes that can easily catch fire and sustain combustion. These wastes are usually liquid and a flash point test is used to determine the lowest temperature at which the chemical ignites when exposed to flame.

Corrosivity: Corrosive wastes are acidic or alkaline (base) wastes which can readily corrode or dissolve flesh, metal or other materials. The corrosive characteristic is determined by a pH test or a specific EPS-approved test protocol that tests the chemical’s ability to corrode steel. Reactivity: A reactive waste is one that readily explodes or undergoes violent reactions. A waste is reactive if it can explode under normal handling conditions or can violently react when exposed to water; if it can create toxic fumes or gases when exposed to water or under normal handling conditions or if it meets the criteria for classification as an explosive under DOT rules.

Toxicity: A toxic characteristic waste is a waste that may leach out in a landfill and contains at least one of 40 specifically listed chemicals above a certain concentration level.

Listed hazardous waste materials are classified by process and assigned to a letter category. The four types of listed waste materials are:

• K-Listed: Process specific wastes that are generated by specific industries such as iron and steel production. K-listed wastes are not likely to be found in a laboratory.
• F-Listed: Non-specific source waste that are generated by common industrial or manufacturing processes. A process that produces waste solvents generates F-listed wastes. F-listed waste materials are commonly generated in the laboratory setting. F-listed wastes that may be found in biomedical laboratories include:
  
  

  Tetrachloroethylene	Isobutanol	Trichloroethylene	Acetone
  1,1,1-trichloroethylene	Xylene	1,1,2-trichloroethylene	Ethyl acetate
  Ortho-dichlorobenzene	Ethyl benzene	Methylene chloride	Ethyl ether
  Carbon tetrachloride	Methyl isobutyl ketone	Cresols	n-Butyl alcohol
  2-nitropropane	Cyclohexanone	Nitrobenzene	Methanol
  Toluene	Methyl ethyl ketone	Carbon disulfide	Benzene

• U- and P-Listed: Pure or commercial grade formulations of specific unused chemicals that are considered wastes or materials that are classified as acutely toxic. Unused chemicals may be considered wastes because they are no longer needed, they are spilled, or they are off-specification. U-listed wastes that may be found in biomedical laboratories include:
  

  Acetaldehyde	1,2-Dichlorophenol	Acetone	Ethyl acetate
  Acetonitrile	Ethyl ether	Acetophenone	Formaldehyde
  Acrylamide	Mercury	Acrylonitrile	Methanol
  Aniline Benzene	Methyl ethyl ketone peroxide	1-Butanol	Phenol
  Chlorobenzene	Tetrachloroethylene	Chloroform	Carbon tetrachloride
  o-Chlorophenol	Tetrahydrofuran	Cresol	Thallium acetate
  Cyclohexane	Toluene	Ethylene dichloride	Methyl chloroform
  Methylene chloride	Trichloroethylene

Note that some materials are found in both the F- and U- lists. Proper assignment to a waste type is based on the process that generated the waste. A material will not be classified as both an F- and U-listed waste, but will be assigned to the proper classification at the time it is made a waste material and processed for disposal.

P-listed wastes most commonly found in found in biomedical laboratories include:

Please contact Radiation Safety in advance of any work with long-lived radioactive materials (half lives of greater than 120 days) that will generate “mixed waste material” so handling and disposal options can be arranged.

Ms. Stephanie Lehrer has recently joined the EHS & RM staff and will be performing some duties previously done by Jeff Marshall including the monthly area monitoring survey Stephanie is a junior at UWM and will be working with both the Radiation Safety and Environmental Affairs Programs.

Jeff Marshall has safely returned from his oversees military duty and has relocated to northern Wisconsin.

If you are traveling, here is some news you can use. “Homeland Security Operating Directives” require that each “detection of radiation” at a border or within an airport must be investigated and resolved. Border and airports are using passive radiation detectors such as portal monitors to scan cargo and passengers. Every person who sets off an alarm is held up until Officers can determine if that person has a legitimate reason to be radioactive.

There are many medical test that involve the injection or ingestion of radioactive material for diagnosis or as therapy. Often this radioactive material can be detected outside the person’s body for a number of days. Many, but not all nuclear medicine departments now provide patients with letters explaining that the patient has received a radiopharmaceutical and directing the customs or airport personnel to call the doctor, clinic or hospital if they have questions. For those carrying those documents officials simply verify that the clinic is legitimate and then call to verify that the person was a patient there.

The people who don’t have the documentation are asked for the doctor and clinic’s name and officials do the same thing, but most patients do not know the number of the clinic off hand so the may be detained for a quite a while until everything gets straightened out. If you are nuclear medicine patient, make sure that you have paperwork from your physician and/or clinic explaining the situation before traveling. You will save yourself some hassle and delays.