Radiation safety as part of a comprehensive university occupational health and safety program

Rutgers University has developed an integrated occupational health and safety program incorporating the disciplines of radiation protection, chemical hygiene, industrial hygiene, occupational safety, hazardous substance disposal, and environmental control. The program was implemented by the Department of Radiation and Environmental Health and Safety which was organized in a nontraditional way to provide an interdisciplinary resource and service to a large state university community. In the relatively short period of time that the new organization functioned at full capacity, the strengths of the new organization as well as a few weaknesses have become apparent. We present here a short discussion of the reorganization activities and the lessons learned.