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Edition 20, August 1999

Radiation Safety Monthly Focus:
Signs and Labels

Following are selected state regulations and University policies that apply to signs and labels in radiation laboratories. State inspectors commonly look for signage and labeling violations during annual site visits.

Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety Regulations

  1. Each container of licensed material must have a durable, clearly visible label. Requirements vary depending on the type and amount of radioactive material, and ORS provides guidance on the appropriate label. For example, stock vials, materials in storage and waste containers must be labeled, while every LSC vial does not. IDNS has cited PIs in the past for failure to label both storage locations such as refrigerators and freezers and their contents.
  2. Prior to removal or disposal of empty containers, labels must be removed or defaced. The example is the stock vial that you throw into your dry radwaste container. Remove or deface all labels, tags, signs and stickers.
  3. Each radiation machine (e.g., medical, dental and veterinary X-ray machine, analytical X-ray unit and electron microscope) must be labeled to caution individuals that radiation is produced when it is energized. ORS will advise on other labels that may be required for analytical units and electron microscopes.

University Policies

  1. All rooms where radioactive materials are stored or used (both sealed and unsealed sources) must be posted with the "Caution, Radioactive Material" sign. ORS provides the sign. If a "Caution, Radiation Area" or other sign is needed, ORS will post that also. See Radiation Safety Handbook (RSH) section 15.2.
  2. Each container of radioactive waste shall bear a label or tag identifying the contents at all times (RSH 22.9).
  3. Labels shall identify the radionuclide, the amount of activity, and the date (RSH 16.2).
  4. When animals treated with radioactive materials are housed in CEAR facilities, the door and individual cages must be labeled. Cage labels also must list the animal count (required by the University's state license).

And another thing.

Investigator contributions to incident reports need to be taken more seriously, says the Chemical and Biological Safety Committee. Committee files are filled with incident reports with stated causes such as "accidents happen." When the mixing of a cleaning acid with an incompatible contaminant in a flask caused ejection of the material onto a worker's face, the proper corrective action was not "to wear a full face-shield next time" as stated by the PI. Rather, the cause(s) of the incident should have been identified and eliminated. While eye and skin protection is important, it would be better to examine whether another cleaning agent might be safer, to establish and follow a pre-cleaning protocol for sorting glassware, to post a list of incompatible materials, and so forth. Please think about this when evaluating the safety of your laboratory procedures and when completing incident reports. Protection and prevention both are important, but they are not the same thing.

Use this NUtrino as a training tool. Circulate it among the radiation workers in your group and have them sign and date the training form on the back. File it with your authorization and other radiation safety documents for review during regulatory inspections. Discuss it during laboratory meetings. We have back issues, or you can print them off the Web.