Contamination |
 Data Entry Guidance |
USTUR health physics database |
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Contamination records are broken into three modalities: clothing, personal, and workspace. A single incident may involve more than one type of contamination. A leaking glove port, for example, could contaminate the worker’s hands (personal), sleeve (clothing), and the floor (workspace). Thus several records may refer to a single contamination event.
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| The 'Contamination' tab contains details on reported contamination incidents (click image to enlarge). |
Field Descriptions
A complete listing of contamination fields follows. Many of the fields appear only on the data entry forms. For example, reported activities exist on data entry forms, but only the derived (standardized) activities are displayed on data viewing forms.
Modality
The 'Modality' is used to break contamination records into three categories: clothing, personal, and workspace.
Location
The 'Location' refers to the building and/or area where the contamination incident occurred.
Contaminant(s)
'Contaminant' stores the contaminant (radionuclide or type of radiation) or mixture involved in the contamination incident.
Measurement Date/Time
The 'Measurement Date/Time' contains the date and time that the contamination survey was conducted. (i.e. swipe. the time of the incident can be noted in comments and incidents tab)
Inequality
The 'Inequality' works with the activity fields to describe the reported contamination levels (i.e. < 20,000 dpm). Five inequality options are available: <, <=, =, >, >=.
Reported Activity
The 'Reported Activity' field contains the measured activity as it is reported in the hard file.
Reported Unit
The 'Reported Unit' field contains the unit used in the hard file to report the activity.
Derived Activity
The 'Derived Activity' displays the measured activity in standardized units (dpm or cpm). It is calculated from the 'Reported Activity' using pre-defined conversion factors:
- Derived Activity = Reported Activity * Conversion factor
Derived Unit
The 'Derived Unit' is the standardized unit that enables quick comparison of contamination records. The standardized unit for activity is disintegrations per minute (dpm) and the unit when counts were measured but not converted into an activity is counts per minute (cpm).
Detector Used
'Detector Used' contains the type of detector used to measure the contamination level.
Decontamination Agents
'Decontamination Agents' contains a list of all decontamination agents used.
Decontamination Results
The 'Decontamination Results' field states the level of activity after decontamination (i.e. decontaminated to < 500 dpm).
Comments
The 'Comments' provide additional information such as the detector used, association with a high air count or a wound, and a brief synopsis of the incident that caused the contamination (if known).
Source
'Source' contains the source of contamination data – document name and date – in order to expedite access to original hard file documents.
Initials
The 'Initials' field stores the initials of the person who added the contamination record to the database.
Entry Date
The 'Entry Date' field stores the date that the contamination record was added to the database.
This page was last updated on May 22, 2008. usturwebmaster@tricity.wsu.edu