Company fined for excess exposure to gamma rays

Applied Inspection Limited, a company that carries out non-destructive testing was fined £5,914 (inc.costs) for failings in the way it carried out gamma radiography work.

The circumstances were:

• There were inadequate safeguarding standards for gamma radiography work on one enclosure
•  Work procedures, risk assessments and local rules were insufficient.
• The passive personal radiation dosimeter (Thermo Luminescent Dosimeter / TLD badge) of an employee who worked in this enclosure registered an overexposure, which was above the annual statutory limit.
• The company and employee were unable to explain why the TLD badge came back with a high reading. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the employee did not receive a radiation overdose for the period in question.
• The other ‘gamma enclosures’ on site had the correct guarding standards.

The HSE inspector said:
“The basic principle on which the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 are based is that there is no safe dose of ionising radiation. Due to the hazards and risks associated with carrying out industrial radiography work it is critical that companies ensure that all aspects of it are carried out diligently and with the highest level of integrity, engineering safety devices and management control systems to enable the risks to be controlled to as low as reasonably practicable.”