ADVANTAGES OF SIRAD^TM

SIRAD (including RADTriage) offers the following advantages over other radiation monitoring devices available commercially:

• It is simple, lightweight and disposable.
• It is inexpensive with least maintenance and logistic cost (~$10 vs. ~$200).
• It is a self-developing, self-indicating and instant (real time) dosimeter.
• It does not require a power source. It is always ready to be used for years.
• No special equipment are required for estimation of the dose.
• It does not require any maintenance.
• It does not require calibration.
• The color change is irreversible/permanent and cumulative.
• Dose can be estimated with an uncertainty less than 20% with a color-matching reference chart.
• Dose can be determined with an uncertainty less than 10% with a spectrophotometer or an optical densitometer.
• It can be used over a wide dose range (1 - 1,000 rads). Higher dose can also be estimated.
• Color development will be essentially independent of the energy and the dose rate.
• It will monitor high energy radiation, such as X-ray, gamma ray and electrons (selective to ionizing radiation).
• It will be tissue equivalent and hence no corrections will be required.
• It is unaffected by ambient conditions, e.g., temperature and humidity.
• It neither emits nor is affected by non-ionizing EM radiation.
• Very little effect of irradiation temperature (less than 0.1%/^oC between -20^oC to 60^oC).
• Reasonable protection from sunlight (a few months under direct sunlight with black protective cover).
• Reasonable shelf-life of at least one year (recommended life is one year at this stage but estimated life is about a few years).
• The exposure/results can be archived.
• It is essentially non-destructive.
• It can withstand severe environmental conditions such as extreme hot and cold weather and laundry cycles.
• It is tamper resistant and evident.
• It has false positive indicators.
• It lets the user monitor his/her own exposure.