Radiation & Health Physics

A branch of the occupational and environmental safety health sciences and professions concerned with the safety of people and the environment from possibly harmful effects of radiation, while providing for the operation of radiation for the benefit of humanity. Health physicists are interdisciplinary radiation shield and safety specialists whose proficiency draws from environmental science, medicine, radiological health, mathematics, radiation biology, chemistry, and physics. The subject necessitates understanding of the measurement, generation, and characteristics of radiation; environmental transport of radionuclides; dosimetry; results of radiation in biological systems; and the set of laws and recommendations governing the use of radiation. The field has prolonged to include nonionizing as well as ionizing sources of radiation.