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E-mail is being used to get the Newsletter out. If a different system or additional routes are needed, please let us know. You are encouraged to copy it, post it, circulate it, or even keep it in your radiation safety files for future reference. In order to be really useful, we need input from you. Any question, learning experience, joke (Yes, we also want to be at least a little on the light side), recipes, innovative problem solving, etc. can be unbelievably helpful to others. Send any ideas, requests, etc. to Radiation Safety Office, 102 Animal Pathology, 0076, or 3-6777, or bmwils2@pop.uky.edu. We also need your help in establishing a complete mailing list for the newsletter. We would like to have the newsletter reach all radiation lab managers as well as the AU. If you want to be added to the mailing list, give us a call. RSO COLUMN - Bob Wilson This first issue of a radiation safety newsletter represents a long-standing goal peppered by many suggestions as to what, whether, how, and when. Our intent is to improve communications to whatever degree possible. Each and every reader is humbly urged to send in questions, ideas, problems, jokes (radiation related if possible), recipes, or anything which may maintain an open dialogue. Someone suggested a "checklist" of radiation safety items, which if satisfactorily and routinely carried out could prevent most citations. Would this be helpful to you? Call or e-mail and let us know how you feel. RAD WASTE PICKUPS - Fred Rawlings When she rolled off the assembly line brand new in the mid 1980’s, no one in Detroit would have guessed that she would rack up 30,000 miles cruising in and among the confines of a University in Downtown Lexington. Med. Center, Chem-Phys, Wenner Gren, Gluck, - through rain, sleet, snow...You know. But she has. And the old Rad Van did it in style. With an AM radio and a cage like the one in a Police Paddy Wagon, the Chevy Van has plied the several square miles of Campus picking up Radwaste year after year. Until this year. When after a few signs of fever, and a missed beat or two, the six-cylinder motor coughed and died. Blown head gasket. It's not the kind of thing where you can just run down to Hertz and pick out their loaner Low Level Radioactive Waste hauler. Or convince the Motor Pool that after you put all the seats back in, the kids can still put their Big Mac bags on the floor when they head off for the Volleyball tournament. So, as PPD put her back together, we were out of business. Sorry about the two-week hiatus in September, but we’re on the road again. Ready for another 15 years of fun as your Official UK LLRW hauler. Let the good times roll. BADGES - Tracy Cayson Please be diligent in promptly returning your radiation badge(s) on schedule to the Radiation Safety Office. Also, if you have any old or unclaimed badges on hand, please return them, holders and all, to us. If anyone fails to receive a badge, or loses one, call the Radiation Safety Office immediately. We will get a replacement to you. Late badges greatly slow down the response time in getting radiation exposure results to wearers. The program is vastly improved with good cooperation on timely returns. A policy statement on this is in the Radiation Safety Manual. Our badge service vendor is changing the badge type with the Jan. 2000 exchange. Tracy will be visiting depts. and explaining the change. Waste Alert All radiation labels, signs, etc. must be completely removed or defaced before the University can release any item. The Radiation Safety Office collects and processes all radioactive waste materials. Waste containing only radionuclides with a half-life of less than 90 Days are stored for at least 10 half-lives, surveyed, and released as non-radioactive material. This saves the University a lot of money. However, all those radiation labels must be kept out of this "short-lived" waste, or completely defaced. We can not pick up waste that has labels and signs mixed in it. You may, however, separate ANY labeled containers in a box with a separate waste ticket, and we will pick them up. Lead Pigs must be segregated as well, since lead is a hazardous material.
RADIATION SAFETY OFFICE PERSONNEL Radiation Safety Office, 102 Animal Pathology 0076 UK Campus, 3-6777, bmwils2@pop.uky.edu
Cindy Aubrey, Office Support Asst. |