Xref: utzoo rec.radio.amateur.misc:2355 sci.electronics:19921 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!uflorida!gatech!mcnc!duke!george.mc.duke.edu!klg From: klg@george.mc.duke.edu (Kim Greer -- rjj) Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc,sci.electronics Subject: Re: How to measure/detect X-ray (cheap)? Message-ID: <22243@duke.cs.duke.edu> Date: 6 May 91 19:16:15 GMT References: <4902@kitty.UUCP> <4212786@harvee.UUCP> <1991May1.161415.4235@swbatl.sbc.com> Sender: news@duke.cs.duke.edu Followup-To: rec.radio.amateur.misc Organization: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC Lines: 33 Nntp-Posting-Host: george.mc.duke.edu In article <1991May1.161415.4235@swbatl.sbc.com> ken@swbatl.sbc.com (Ken Gianino 5-9081) writes: ==I would not trust film badge dosimeters. My wife works for a vet and ==they use film badge dosimeters in their x-ray room. One of her co-workers ==decieded to "test" the dosimeter by giving it a full dose of x-rays = = Does anyone still use film badges? I thought the whole industry switched = over to thermoluminescent dosimeters years ago. They look like film badges. = Maybe I'm wrong and just the nuclear power industry switched to TLD's for = Gamma dose. = -Ken WB0QNA Well, Siemens provides film badge reading for quite a few hospitals (including here at Duke). There are other companies that provide film badges. We, actually Radiation Safety, used to do our own in house TLD service for dozens of labs besides for the hundreds of Radiology employees (x-ray/nuc med/rad oncology/PET/etc.). While the TLD's are very precise, and accurate for very low readings (like less than 10 mr/month), apparently the extra time and expense to provide in house TLD's was just too great to otherwise let someone with greater volume (and no "conflicts of interest") take it over. Then again, if a large percentage of readings are less than 10 mr/month, it is probably not worth worrying with anyway. At larger doses, like >25, the film badges are supposed to be relatively accurate. If anyone is really that interested, I will try to find out the (major) reason(s) we converted from TLD's to film badges. Personally, I would rather use TLD's, but nobody asked me my opinion! :^) (For one thing, they hold up a lot better going through a washing machine when you forget to take them off your clothes. =:^) ) -- Kim L. Greer Duke University Medical Center klg@orion.mc.duke.edu Div. Nuclear Medicine POB 3949 voice: 919-681-5894 Durham, NC 27710 fax: 919-681-5636