Radiation Risk Communications with Employees, Unions, Attorneys, the Public, and the Media

Does your staff have any concerns about exposures to radiation from radioactive materials or from x-ray machines?

Have any questions been raised about safety?

Have you ever talked with your staff about what is safe?

How do you know it’s safe?  Who decides?

Have you had to deal with attorneys on radiation or x-ray risk issues?

Have you had to prepare and present testimony at public hearings on radiation risk issues?

Are you prepared to deal with the media, if a safety issue goes public?

Academy Director, Ray Johnson, has been dealing with such questions and issues for over 30 years. Ray brings together extensive training and experience in psychological counseling as well as over 40 years of experience as a health physicist (over 20 years as a Certified Health Physicist). Ray has presented over 100 workshops on these matters around the US and Canada since the late 1970s. . He has also written over 200 articles, papers, book chapters, presentations, and workshop manuals on issues involving radiation risk communications. Ray has presented expert testimony in several trials involving radiation risk issues. He also has extensive experience with news media interviews, including conducting workshops on how to deal with the media.

Could you use some counseling on issues involving safety concerns of your staff?  Here is how Ray could help.

    X-ray or Radiation Safety Awareness Training. – We suggest a 30–60 minute class for all personnel, especially for those that may see the radiation warning signs, but do not have any special training on what the signs mean. This class is to answer questions such as:

1. What are x-rays or radiation?
2. What do you think, or feel, about exposure to x-rays or radiation?
3. What have you heard or read about x-rays or radiation?
4. Is it OK to be exposed to radiation?
5. What does the red warning light on an x-ray machine mean?
6. If you are exposed to radiation or x-rays, what will happen to you?
7. What’s so bad about exposure to radiation?
8. What are the risks?
9. What if you are pregnant?
10. What is safe?
11. Are you safe from radiation?
12. Who decides?
13. How do they know?
14. What is the evidence? 
15. What sources of radiation may you be exposed to at your facility?
16. What are the exposures from these sources and what do they mean relative to natural radiation sources in the world around us?

This class will help with:

1. worker’s peace-of-mind,
2. understanding radiation safety practices,
3. preparing for emergency response,
4. worker’s right-to-know about hazards in the workplace, and
5. an opportunity to answer questions about x-ray or radiation safety.

Such training may also help avoid future litigation from workers who may believe they have not been adequately informed of radiation hazards in the workplace and have now been harmed by radiation (1/3 or more of all workers will get cancer, some may believe their cancer is due to working near an x-ray machine or radiation source at your facility).

People are most afraid of what they know the least about. Even a little good information on radiation safety will go a long way towards settling worker concerns. Ray likes to conclude awareness training sessions with an offer for one-on-one discussion with any workers who may so desire.

    Management Consultation on Radiation Issues - Ray has been called in by management at many facilities for counseling assistance on how to deal with workers or unions who may be upset about possible radiation exposures.  To prepare for the most helpful consultation, Ray will ask the management to consider the following questions.

1. What does management want to accomplish for the staff?
2. What is the motivation of management regarding training or counseling?
3. What are the liabilities or risks to management?
4. What are the goals of training for knowledge, attitudes, behavior?
5. What goals are stated, which are hidden?
6. How will you know if Radiation Safety Awareness training was successful?
7. What information or perspectives do you want staff to hear?
8. What do employees need to know?
9. What do employees want to know?
10. How do they view risks associated with their jobs?
11. What questions have employees raised?
12. What are employees’ concerns, fears, and feelings about radiation or x-rays?
13. Are there issues of trust, credibility, or beliefs?
14. What is the safety culture from top management down?
15. What does management gain from successful training?
16. What do employees gain?
17. What do employees want from management related to training?
18. Are there union concerns or issues?

Ray can also help management set up and conduct meetings with employees or union representatives to address their radiation concerns (either as group meetings or with individuals). 

    Communication with Attorneys Regarding Radiation Risks – Ray has counseled several attorneys on the intricacies of radiation risks and people’s fears of radiation. Attorneys for either the plaintiff or the defense need a good grounding in fundamentals of radiation safety in order to best prepare their case. Ray has coached many attorneys on what questions to ask and what answers to expect. Ray can also serve as an expert witness for you or he can coach you for presenting testimony at a trial. Ray has written several papers and presentations on the role of the radiation safety specialists as a witness, and risk communication with attorneys, judges, and jurors.

    Communications with the Public – The lack of public understanding of radiation safety has been the number one concern of specialists in radiation safety for over 50 years. Ray began dealing with public communication issues in 1975 when he was responsible for reporting to the public on radioactive fallout from Chinese atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.  At the time Ray was Chief of Radiation Surveillance for US Environmental Protection Agency. He was responsible for compiling information on fallout from seven Federal agencies and preparing daily press releases. Over a period of several years he wrote over 150 press releases. To learn about public concerns he also worked in EPA’s press office answering public calls.  While answering such calls from all over the US, he began to realize that while his press releases conveyed good technical data, they did not do very well addressing people’s fears about radiation.

To learn about dealing with fears, Ray went through several years of intensive training to practice psychological counseling.  Although he never went into counseling as a full time profession, what he has done over the past 25 years is to provide insights into risk communication to address people’s fears based on what he learned (and continues to learn) from psychological and communication sciences. To share these insights with the radiation safety profession, Ray published a monthly column in the Health Physics Society Newsletter from 1984 to 1989 (with Larry Petcovic) and from 1994 to 2001. To further develop his insights in communications, Ray also spent a year (in 1984-1985) as a Fellow in the Johns Hopkins Program for Organizational and Community Systems.

In 1984, Ray also qualified to present the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which he has now presented to over 3,000 specialists in radiation safety and about 2,000 others. From 1984 to 1990, Ray toured the US and Canada presenting Myers-Briggs Workshops to help radiation professionals understand their normal communication preferences and how they contrast with the preferences of the general public. He continues to provide the MBTI for regular classes at the Radiation Safety Academy on risk communication, counseling radiation workers, and train-the-trainer for specialists in radiation safety.

Ray has written more than 200 publications, articles, book chapters, and training manuals on issues regarding public understanding of radiation risks.  He has also conducted over 200 workshops and classes on risk communication with the public. Not surprising, Ray chose communications as his focus for new initiatives while serving as President of the Health Physics Society in 1999-2000. He conducted several retreats and workshops on communication issues for the HPS Executive Committee and Board of Directors and chaired an Ad Hoc Committee on Society Communications.

    Communication with the Media – Ray has presented workshops for over 20 years to train radiation safety professionals for interviews with the media. His workshops are based upon his experience in risk communications and as well has many interviews over the years, including TV, radio, and print media.  He was recently featured in a two-page article in the Style Section of the Washington Post.  This story about Ray’s collection of radioactive antiques was the culmination of nearly six months of email exchanges with a Post Editor, and a four-hour face-to-face interview.

    Conducting or Presenting Testimony at Hearings – Ray has extensive experience in the dynamics of public hearings on radiation issues. He has presented testimony at many public hearings, as well as Congressional hearings, Federal Agency hearings, Advisory Board hearings, and at numerous committees and boards of other countries.  For about five years, while with the EPA, Ray was in charge of a program to regulate the ocean disposal of radioactive wastes.  This was a very controversial topic and various Congressional Committees called for hearings on the subject at least 3 or 4 times a year.  Many of these hearings involved interactions and responses to several environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and the Sierra Club, etc. In 1988, Ray was also a consultant to the League of Women Voters for conducting several public workshops on disposal of high level radioactive wastes.