Emergency Response
Response to Spills
If at any point you have questions, or need help with your decontamination efforts, please call:
Environmental Health and Safety Radiation Protection Office,
Telephone: 617-495- 2060 Fax: 617-495-0593
E-mail address: radiation_protection at harvard dot edu .
- Prevent the spread of contamination. Do not panic, but stop what you are doing. Presume the area is contaminated. Inform others of the situation and restrict access to the area.
- Survey for personal contamination. Remove any contaminated clothing.
- Contamination on skin.
- Activity of the spill is greater than 10 µCi.
- The spill is outside of the immediate work area.
- The spill covers a large area or volume.
Call EH&S if any of the previous statements apply. - Do not forget your dosimeter or the proper protection equipment: gloves, laboratory coat, eye protection, booties, before attempting spill clean up.
- Survey the contaminated area. Mark the perimeter of the spill and any isolated spots.
Thoroughly clean by wiping the contamination with dampened paper towels working from the perimeter towards the center of the spill. Cleaning solutions such as: Dow™ "Scrubbing Bubbles", Windex™, Fantastic™, or 409™ are generally as effective as Count-off™ or RadiacWash™.
Remember! Used radioactive paper towels must be disposed of
in the respective radionuclide's radioactive waste container (i.e. cleaning up 32P contamination throw contaminated paper towel in the 32P waste).
Once finished with the decontamination, survey the area to make
sure that it is reading background levels. Perform an extensive personal survey. Take your time in surveying your hands, shoes, laboratory coat, pants and your face.
Email radiation_protection at harvard dot edu to send comments and suggestions to the Radiation Protection Office
