Pre-merger our service had been issued with EPDs (Electronic Personal Dosimeter), but so far I've managed to avoid the training and I don't intend to have one - I didn't join the Ambulance Service to become a Human Geiger Counter for Leader Blair & Co. These things cost £400 each and the money would be better spent on a decent radio system so we can call for help when we need it - nutters will kill us before radiation does! The Police are apparently keen on us having EPDs because we are invited into places that they are not, but there is no protocol for what we should do if the thing goes off. We were told verbally that we should leave the scene immediately but (surprise) there is nothing in writing. I can just imagine the headlines if a crew is on scene, their EPD's are triggered (by, say, someone's WW2-era luminous watch); they leave and the patient dies. The crew would be hung out to dry with absolutely no support from management. "as an EMT am I therefore expendable?" - of course, aren't we all? The Great British Public thinks that everyone who wears a green suit and jumps out of an ambulance is a Paramedic: this view is encouraged by lying politicians who claim that every ambulance in the country is crewed by a Para and an EMT (the majority are double-tech crewed), and reinforced by a lazy media who like simple labels. (sorry if this is a bit of a rant - had a bad shift last night)