The Radiation Safety Division promotes the well-being of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation users through education, evaluation of practices, ensuring regulatory compliance and dose monitoring at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
SERVICES PROVIDED:
The Radiation Safety Division provide personnel monitoring for all radiation occupation workers within UTHSCSA and University health system that might receive greater than 10% of the annual dose limit of 5000 mrem. If you believe that you might possibly fit in this category please click on the link on the left hand side of this page entitled Dosimetry Service to fill out an application for a dosimeter.
The Radiation Safety Division provides various training courses in areas such as x-ray training, laser training, radioactive material safety training for laboratory research and human use applications, radiation waste training, and basic radiation orientation. If you need more information regarding each of the courses please click on the Radiation Training link on the left hand side of this page.
The Radiation Safety Division performs semi-annual laboratory evaluations to evaluate the radiation safety practices and provide insight as to corrections that might need to be incorporated into the laboratory practices. The goal of these evaluations are to help improve any problem areas and to point out the positive practices in each radiation laboratory.
The Radiation Safety Division provides patient monitoring for patients at the University Health System. Some of these patients include I-131 Thyroid Graves patients, I-131 Thyroid Cancer Patients, and I-125 Eye Plaque cases with the Ophthalmology Department.
This is an annual service that our division provides at no cost to the researchers to calibrate the meters according to the radioisotope being used in the laboratory and to perform a battery check on each meter. If you need any calibrations for your GM detectors please contact the Radiation Safety Division.
The Radiation Safety Division will perform radiation contamination surveys on a regular basis throughout the University and University Health System. If you need one of our Specialists to check any contamination areas please contact our division.
- Radioactive Package Receipt and Delivery
This is a service that our division provides upon receipt of a radioactive material package on campus. We will perform a contamination survey and meter check on each package to verify that there are no potential contamination problems in addition to updating each principal investigators inventory. Once the inventory is updated, our division will deliver the package to your laboratory.
All sealed sources on campus and at the University Health System are inventoried and leak tested on a semi-annual basis by our Specialists.
- X-ray and Laser Inventory/Registration
The Radiation Safety Division currently holds both the laser and x-ray registration for the University and University Health System. We will inventory the protective lead aprons, x-ray machines, and work with the Physicist for annual calibration checks. In addition, we are starting to inventory the lasers on campus and will begin laser evaluations of each laboratory.
All x-rays are tested for compliance by our Medical Physicist on a regulatory schedule and then tested by the Texas Department of State Health Services x-ray inspector on a regular basis.
- Radioactive Material License
The University and University Health System operate under a Broad Scope Medical License and our sites are inspected on an annual basis by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The Environmental Health & Safety Department has a Research Imaging Center Radiation Division Manager that provides support with the PET and Cyclotron License for all Radiation Safety concerns and practices. |
