Radiation Safety

Joe Graves(link sends e-mail)
Assistant Director/Radiation Safety Officer, 335-8517
Gordon Axt(link sends e-mail)
Assistant Radiation Safety Officer, 335-8503
Barb Vitense(link sends e-mail)
Radiation Administrative Services, 335-9550
Laurie Scholl(link sends e-mail)
Health Physicist, 353-5389
Joey Michael(link sends e-mail)
Health Physicist, 335-8518
Joe Hawk(link sends e-mail)
Radiation Safety Specialist, 384-4541
Jeff Olson(link sends e-mail)
Radiation Safety Specialist, 335-9372

Radiation Safety General Information

Radiation Safety provides the radiological safety training, professional guidance, and technical support necessary to establish and implement an effective radiation safety program at the University of Iowa. Technical support includes safety evaluations, radiation monitoring, environmental and personnel dose assessments, and radiological emergency and radioactive spill response. Professional guidance consists of evaluation of facilities, written guidelines, radiation monitoring equipment recommendations, laboratory surveys and program assessments, regulations interpretation, regulatory licensing and registration, and regulatory compliance and intervention. Safety training includes exposure and contamination control, risk assessment, and radiation monitoring instrumentation use.

Principal Functions of Radiation Safety 

  • Provides training
  • Evaluates faculty applications for approval to use radioactive materials
  • Approves requests to procure radioactive materials
  • Provides guidelines and protocols, conducts routine and investigative safety reviews and offers consultation and assistance to users
  • Registers radiation-generating devices and reviews facility shielding plans
  • Provides radiological emergency and incident response
  • Provides radiation monitoring and bioassay services
  • Decommissions labs, facilities and equipment prior to return to unrestricted use

IDPH Notice to Employees -

  • Standards for Protection against Radiation; Notices, Instructions and Reports to Workers; Inspections; Employee Protection

UI Radiation Committees

  • Executive Committee 
  • Hospital Radiation Safety Review Group
  • Medical Radiation Protection Committee/Radioactive Drug Research committee
  • Basic Science Radiation Protection Committee

Pregnancy Declaration

Radiological Emergency and Radioactive Spill Response

Emergency situations can arise from the use, storage, or transfer of radioactive material or the misuse of radiation-producing devices such as x-ray units. Incidents may involve the loss of radioactive material, the spread of radioactive contamination, or the accidental exposure of individuals to ionizing radiation. EHS responds promptly to any radiological incident involving radioactive material or radiation-producing devices.

RAM and Minors

The State of Iowa child labor law states.... "No person under eighteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any occupation or business establishment where exposure to radioactive substances and/or ionizing radiation could exceed 10 percent of any of the annual occupational dose limits specified for adult workers." Therefore, it is EHS policy that minors are not permitted to work with sources of ionizing radiation at The University of Iowa.  There are limited exceptions to this rule for educational purposes. 

For further information regarding this policy, please contact Joe Graves, Radiation Safety Officer at 335-85017. For further information regarding this policy, please contact Joe Graves(link sends e-mail), Radiation Safety Officer at 335-8517.