While health physics is now one of the required phases in the training of industrial hygienists who concern themselves with industrial and environmental hazards of all kinds, the Health Physicist is concerned entirely with problems created by radiation.

Care must be taken with nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons, high-energy particle accelerators, x-ray machines, and radionuclides used in biomedical research and therapy. This special attention helps minimize the potential for unnecessary irradiation of individuals or environmental contamination.