Arizona Administrative Code
Title 9 - HEALTH SERVICES
Chapter 7 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES - RADIATION CONTROL
Article 4 - STANDARDS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST IONIZING RADIATION
Section R9-7-403 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 30, No. 38, September 20, 2024

The following definitions apply in this Article, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Air-purifying respirator" means respiratory protective equipment with an air-purifying filter, cartridge, or canister that removes specific air contaminants by passing ambient air through the air-purifying element.

"ALI" means annual limit on intake, the derived limit for the amount of radioactive material taken into the body of an adult worker by inhalation or ingestion in a year. ALI is the smaller value of intake of a given radionuclide in a year by the Reference Man that would result in a committed effective dose equivalent of 0.05 Sv (5 rem) or a committed dose equivalent of 0.5 Sv (50 rem) to any individual organ or tissue. ALI values for intake by ingestion and by inhalation of selected radio-nuclides are given in Appendix B, Table I, Columns 1 and 2.

"Assigned protection factor" or "APF" means the expected workplace level of respirator protection that would be provided by a properly functioning respirator or a class of respirators to properly fitted and trained users. Operationally, the inhaled concentration can be estimated by dividing the ambient airborne concentration by the APF.

"Atmosphere-supplying respirator" means respiratory protective equipment that supplies the equipment user with breathing air from a source independent of the ambient atmosphere, and includes supplied-air respirators (SARs) and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units.

"Class" means a classification scheme for inhaled material according to the material's rate of clearance from the lung. Materials are classified as D, W, or Y, which applies to a range of clearance half-times: for Class D, days, of less than 10 days, for Class W, weeks, from 10 to 100 days, and for Class Y, years, of greater than 100 days (see Introduction, Appendix B). For purposes of these rules, "lung class" and "inhalation class" are equivalent terms.

"Constraint" or "dose constraint" means a value above which specified licensee or registrant actions are required.

"Critical group" means the group of individuals reasonably expected to receive the greatest exposure to residual radioactivity for any applicable set of circumstances.

"DAC" means derived air concentration, the concentration of a given radionuclide in air which, if breathed by Reference Man for a working year of 2,000 hours under conditions of light work, results in an intake of one ALI. For purposes of these rules, the condition of light work is an inhalation rate of 1.2 cubic meters of air per hour for 2,000 hours in a year. DAC values are given in Appendix B, Table I, Column 3.

"DAC-hour" means derived air concentration-hour, the product of the concentration of radioactive material in air, expressed as a fraction or multiple of the derived air concentration for each radionuclide, and the time of exposure to that radionuclide, in hours. A licensee or registrant may take 2,000 DAC-hours to represent one ALI, equivalent to a committed effective dose equivalent of 0.05 Sv (5 rem).

"Declared pregnant woman" means a woman who has voluntarily informed the licensee or registrant in writing of her pregnancy and the estimated date of conception. The declaration remains in effect until the declared pregnant woman withdraws the declaration in writing or is no longer pregnant.

"Decommission" means to remove a facility or site safely from service and reduce residual radioactivity to a level that permits release of the property for unrestricted use and termination of the license or release of the property under restricted conditions and the termination of the license.

"Demand respirator" means an atmosphere-supplying respiratory protective equipment that admits breathing air to the face piece only when a negative pressure is created inside the face piece by inhalation.

"Deterministic effect" (See "Nonstochastic effect")

"Disposable respirator" means respiratory protective equipment for which maintenance is not intended and that is designed to be discarded after excessive breathing resistance, sorbent depletion, physical damage, or end-of-service-life renders it unsuitable for use. Examples of this type of device include a disposable half-mask respirator or a disposable, escape-only, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).

"Distinguishable from background" means that the detectable concentration of a radionuclide is statistically greater than the background concentration of that radionuclide in the vicinity of a site or, in the case of structures, in similar materials using accepted measurement, survey, and statistical techniques.

"Dosimetry processor" means an individual or an organization that processes and evaluates individual monitoring devices in order to determine the radiation dose delivered to the monitoring devices.

"Filtering face piece (dust mask)" means a particulate respirator that operates under a negative pressure with a filter as an integralpart of the face piece or with the entire face piece composed of the filtering medium, not equipped with elasto-meric sealing surfaces and adjustable straps.

"Fit factor" means a quantitative estimate of the fit of a particular respirator to a specific individual, and typically estimates the ratio of the concentration of a substance in ambient air to its concentration inside the respirator when worn.

"Fit test" means the use of protocol to qualitatively or quantitatively evaluate the fit of a respirator on an individual.

"Helmet" means a rigid respiratory inlet covering that also provides head protection against impact and penetration.

"Hood" means a respiratory inlet covering that completely covers the head, neck, and may also cover portions of the shoulders and torso.

"Inhalation class" (See "Class")

"Loose-fitting face piece" means a respiratory inlet covering that is designed to form a partial seal with the face.

"Lung class" (See "Class")

"Nationally tracked source" means a sealed source that contains a quantity equal to or greater than Category 1 or Category 2 levels of radioactive material listed in 10 CFR 20, Appendix E, revised January 1, 2008, incorporated by reference, and available under R9-7-101. This incorporated material contains no future editions or amendments. In this context sealed source does not mean material encapsulated solely for disposal, or nuclear material contained in any fuel assembly, sub-assembly, fuel rod, or fuel pellet.

"Negative pressure respirator (tight fitting)" means respiratory protective equipment in which the air pressure inside the face piece is negative during inhalation with respect to the ambient air pressure outside the respirator.

"Nonstochastic effect" means a health effect, the severity of which varies with the dose and for which a threshold is believed to exist. Radiation-induced cataract formation is an example of a nonstochastic effect. For purposes of these rules, "deterministic effect" is an equivalent term and "threshold" means that which if not exceeded, poses no risk or likelihood of an effect to occur.

"Planned special exposure" means an infrequent exposure to radiation received while employed, but separate from and in addition to the annual occupational dose limits.

"Positive pressure respirator" means respiratory protective equipment in which the pressure inside the respiratory inlet covering exceeds the ambient air pressure outside the respirator.

"Powered air-purifying respirator" or "PAPR" means an air-purifying respirator that uses a blower to force the ambient air through air-purifying elements to the inlet covering.

"Pressure demand respirator" means a positive pressure, atmosphere-supplying respirator that admits breathing air to the face piece when the positive pressure is reduced inside the face piece by inhalation.

"Probabilistic effect" (See "Stochastic effect")

"Qualitative fit test" or "QLFT" means a pass or fail fit test to assess the adequacy of respirator fit that relies on the individual's response to the test agent.

"Quantitative fit test" or "QNFT" means an assessment of the adequacy of respirator fit by numerically measuring the amount of leakage into the respirator.

"Reference Man" means a hypothetical aggregation of human physical and physiological characteristics determined by international consensus. These characteristics may be used by researchers and public health workers to standardize results of experiments and to relate biological insult to a common base. A description of Reference Man is contained in the International Commission on Radiological Protection report, ICRP Publication 23, "Report of the Task Group on Reference Man," published in 1975 by Pergammon Press, incorporated by reference and on file with the Department and the Office of the Secretary of State. This incorporation by reference contains no future editions or amendments.

"Residual radioactivity" means radioactivity in structures, materials, soils, groundwater, or other media at a site, resulting from activities under a licensee's control. This includes radioactivity from all licensed and unlicensed sources used by the licensee, but excludes background radiation. It also includes radioactive materials that remain at the site because of routine or accidental release of radioactive material at the site or a previous burial at the site, even if the licensee complied with reagent provisions of 9 A.A.C. 7.

"Respiratory protective equipment" means an apparatus, such as a respirator, used to reduce an individual's intake of airborne radioactive materials.

"Sanitary sewerage" means a system of public sewers for carrying off waste water and refuse, but excluding sewage treatment facilities, septic tanks, and leach fields owned or operated by the licensee or registrant.

"Self-contained breathing apparatus" or "SCBA" means an atmosphere-supplying respirator for which the breathing air source is designed to be carried by the user.

"Stochastic effect" means a health effect that occurs randomly and for which the probability of the effect occurring, rather than its severity, is assumed to be a linear function of dose without a threshold. Hereditary effects and cancer incidence are examples of stochastic effects. For purposes of these rules, "probabilistic effect" is an equivalent term.

"Supplied-air respirator" or "SAR" or "airline respirator" means an atmosphere-supplying respirator for which the source of breathing air is not designed to be carried by the user.

"Tight-fitting face piece" means a respiratory inlet covering that forms a complete seal with the face.

"User seal check" or "fit check" means an action conducted by the respirator user to determine if the respirator is properly seated to the face. Examples include negative pressure check, positive pressure check, irritant smoke check, or isoamyl acetate check.

"Very-high radiation area" means an area, accessible to individuals, in which radiation levels from radiation sources external to an individual's body could result in the individual receiving an absorbed dose in excess of 5 Gy (500 rad) in one hour at one meter from a radiation source or one meter from any surface that the radiation penetrates. (At very high doses received at high dose rates, units of absorbed dose, the gray and rad should be used, rather than units of dose equivalent, the sievert and rem).

"Weighting factor" wT for an organ or tissue (T) means the proportion of the risk of stochastic effects resulting from irradiation of that organ or tissue to the total risk of stochastic effects when the whole body is irradiated uniformly. For calculating the effective dose equivalent, the values of wT are: