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.
Most people are more familiar with the former usage.
They may specialize in only one area, but most often are involved in all three. Health Physicists may be employed in a reactor operation, an accelerator program, a state public health department, a hospital, or medical center. They may be involved with basic research in radiobiology, radiogeology, ecology, or shielding and critical assembly studies. In a nuclear plant, the Health Physicists devises and directs research, training, and monitoring programs to protect plant personnel from radiation hazards. Health Physicists in a public health department plan and conduct studies and investigations of radiological health hazards in industrial, medical, dental, and laboratory situations where radioactive materials or ionizing radiation is used.