Personnel Monitoring Services (External Dosimetry Programs)

Most regulatory agencies require licensees to provide individual monitoring programs to personnel that have the potential to incur a radiation dose above a set annual limit – typically 500 millirem.  Some licensees wish to monitor their radiation workers anyway, regardless of the dose potential.  In any case, there is more to setting up an external dosimetry program than just hanging “badges” on applicable employees.  The following are just a few programmatic issues that need to be taken into account:

• Determining what you are monitoring your employees for (i.e., beta/gamma radiation, low/high-energy x-rays, neutrons or some combination)
• Selection of the correct badge type (e.g., , film, TLD, optical dosimeter, track etch detector, etc.)
• Determining the correct badge placement (e.g., extremities, eyes, torso, under/over shield, etc.)
• Setting the monitoring frequency to minimize “missed dose” (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually)
• Ensuring the dosimeters themselves and the processing protocols are accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) in the applicable exposure categories
• Setting procedures for deployment/retrieval, use and storage of dosimeters
• Setting action levels for ‘early notification’ from the dosimeter processor
• Verifying/validating processing results before they are entered as a ‘dose of record’
• Developing a dose reporting program that is in compliance with regulations, informative to employees and protective of personal information
• Training all monitored personnel in the requirements of the program and their right to measurement results
• Developing and implementing procedures to investigate anomalous results, lost/damaged dosimeters or over-exposures
• Making sure everything associated with the monitoring program is performed on time and exactly as specified

There are a number of commercial firms that provide dosimeter processing services.  However, these are typically designed to satisfy the needs of large-scale consumers (i.e., those with hundreds or thousands of monitored employees as opposed to just a handful) and thus lack in the flexibility needed for small-scale programs.  Fortunately, there is an alternative that takes into account all of the aforementioned programmatic considerations but on a budget that even the smallest company can afford.

Plexus-NSD is pleased to offer ‘Personnel Monitoring Services’ that are designed for licensees that need to monitor only a few individuals, that have non-routine deployment durations, that even have one-time use requirements, or that just want to save money.  Our programs can be customized to specific needs yet remain even more cost-competitive than having to force-fit your requirements into the service protocols offered by  the large processors.  Of course the Plexus-NSD program is based upon the use of NVLAP-accredited dosimeters and processing methods in the exposure categories applicable to your operations, and our results are made immediately available to you via a password-protected web site.  The web site also serves as a repository of information that is always at your fingertips in the event of management or regulatory query.

If you think Plexus-NSD’s ‘Personnel Monitoring Services’ just might relieve you of the time and energy required to design and implement a technically-defensible external dosimetry program that meets all regulatory and license requirements, simply Contact Us and an Plexus-NSD Certified Health Physicist will work with you on your monitoring requirements, which portions of the program you would like for Plexus-NSD to perform – we can schedule/deliver dosimeters and processing only or implement an entire program, soup to nuts! – and provide you with a firm, fixed price for the entire package. There is, of course, no cost or obligation associated with our quotations, and we believe you will find our costs to be amazingly competitive – with plenty of ‘value added’ and a guarantee of tight quality control.  So if you have only one person  you need to place onto a quarterly monitoring program, four people that require monitoring on an ‘every two month’ exchange period, or a one-time deployment of 50 dosimeters to support a special project, consider Contacting Us for your personnel monitoring needs.  Our many satisfied customers who have been relying on our services for many, many years can attest to the quality and reliability of our services.