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question on lights please help!
wlrun3@aol.com:
--- Quote from: john d on May 11, 2008, 02:55 ---can someone please help i work for a school district that has removed all the tritium exit lights from all of the bldgs my question is how safe are these to be around their are a couple that are broken and at least a 100 or so that are stored in our repair garage i really dont want to make a big deal to my boss but i do feel my health and the health of my co workers is at risk nobody seems to have a straight answer my boss said that the same stuff is in your watch is this true should we be concerned thanks to all who answer
--- End quote ---
...http://www.trainex.org/web_courses/tritium/index.htm...
Already Gone:
No fair using SloGlo's answer!
But I see your point.
RAD-GHOST:
Well Said Marssim!
Beercourt, You may want to check out this publication, Especially the definition of "General Licensee"! :o
NRC REGULATORY ISSUE SUMMARY 2006-25
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DISTRIBUTION AND POSSESSION OF
TRITIUM EXIT SIGNS AND THE REQUIREMENTS IN 10 CFR 31.5
AND 32.51a
www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/reg-issues/2006/ri200625.pdf -
Later...RG!
Already Gone:
Hey, that's good stuff to know. I'm going to edit my first answer to reflect this.
Only problem is that "general licensees" don't know that they are. They don't know about these requirements, because they either threw away the instructions that came with the fixtures, bought the fixtures with the building, or just forgot.
Most institutions - businesses, schools, etc. - to not have the "organizational knowledge" of things like radioactive material that nukes have. In fact, I find that outside of nuclear power or DOE, there is little or none at all. The outside world does not use procedures and does not have anything like the training that the nukes give to the general worker.
This is a good example: a guy goes to work and finds a stack of radioactive material that is regulated. He has not been taught what the hazards are or what to do about them. The NRC isn't helping matters by considering every user a "Licensee" even though he hasn't any idea that he is one. The party responsible for his workplace safety and health don't even know what they are supposed to do so they can't tell him.
Common sense - the only regulatory authority that is recognized by most people - says that if a light fixture is safe to hang in a building full of kindergarteners, it is perfectly alright to expose the rats and seagulls at the landfill to it. Think for a second, is it really okay to send your kids to a school full of these signs if they are too dangerous to throw away?
We all know what really happens to this stuff. It is in the landfill right next to all the smoke detectors, lead, and asbestos that got removed from the same apartment buildings, hotels and stores. It isn't done in the middle of the night either. It's just that nobody knew what they were tossing out. Apparently, even some schools don't even know (surprising really) how to handle them. So the NRC figures that the best way to correct that problem is to send out a document to the people who already know what to do with the signs. This is like telling GM and Ford what the speed limits are and not posting them on the highway. Can you imagine getting pulled over: "Do you know the speed limit?" "No, officer, I don't." "Well, it is in your owners' manual on the same page that tells you how to set the clock." "But officer, my Ford was built in Mexico, and the manual is in Spanish." "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."
Marlin:
Here is an EPA site, I would think with all of these links the hazard level of just about nil should be clear.
http://www.epa.gov/radtown/docs/exit-signs.pdf
A lot of what I have done over the last 5 or 6 years has been waste related in demolition and remediation, I have filled 55 gallon drums with tritium exit signs for disposal and have never had a problem, the signs are fairly durable and breakage is rare. The most I've had to do is decay correct the activity to keep below 50 curies per drum and there is no detectable increase in background even with 30 to 50 curies of tritium in the container. My perspective is that the hazard in very negligible even if there is a broken sign in a ventilated area (Don't stick your head in a drum with a broken sign in it). Guidance to those who are not familiar with a hazard is almost always over the top conservative compared to what informed waste handlers have, case in point is the direction given to homeowners when one of the new mercury compact fluorescent bulbs is broken.
"That's just my opinion I could be wrong" D.M. ( but probably not in this case)
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