Regulations to protect workers and others against exposure to ionising radiation have been laid before Parliament by Lord Whitty, Minister with responsibility for health and safety.

The Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 (IRR99) come into force on 1 January 2000 and will implement most of the revised Basic Safety Standards Directive (96/29/Euratom) and replace the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985 (IRR85).

The most important changes, include:

• a new requirement for employers to be authorised before they use accelerators or X-ray sets for certain specified purposes;

• the introduction of Health and Safety Executive (HSE) criteria of competence for individuals or organisations wishing to act as radiation protection advisers (RPAs);

• a new requirement for employers to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment before they first start work activities with ionising radiation;

• enhanced requirements for restricting exposure as far as reasonable practicable;

• revised dose limits; and

• more flexibility in the designation of controlled and supervised areas.

The Health and Safety Commission will be approving a Code of Practice in support of IRR99, which will be published, together with the Regulations and non-statutory guidance, early in the New Year.

HSE outlined the requirements of IRR99 at a series of seminars organised by the Society for Radiological Protection which were attended by more than 450 people from various backgrounds including the nuclear, non-destructive testing, general industrial, medical and dental and veterinary sectors.

1. The Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 (S.I 1999 No 3232) replace the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985 (S.I 1985 No 1333), except for the requirement for special hazard assessments (regulation 26 IRR85) and related provisions and the Ionising Radiations (Outside Workers) Regulations 1993 (S.I 1993 No 2379). The regulations come into force on January 1 2000 except for the requirement on prior authorisation which takes effect from 13 May 2000.

2. HSE will be issuing general certificates of authorisation and in most cases employers will need to do no more than check that they are complying with the conditions in those certificates. Employers will only need to apply to HSE for individual authorisation where these conditions cannot be met. HSE will be publishing certificates of authorisation and accompanying guidance early in the New Year.

3. Those RPAs who were formally appointed by an employer under IRR85 will be deemed to meet the HSE criteria of core competence until the end of 2004. IRR99 now specifies particular matters on which employers should seek advice from a suitable RPA i.e. an RPA with particular experience of the type work the employer undertakes. Existing employers will need to re-appoint their RPA (or appoint another suitable RPA) for the purpose of consultation under IRR99 However, HSE no longer needs to be notified about such appointments. The HSE Statement on criteria of competence for radiation protection advisers will be available from HSE next week.

4. If an employer has already undertaken an assessment of the risk for this type of work in compliance with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 [S.I 1999 No 3242] that assessment may need to be reviewed in the light of the new requirements in IRR99 to ensure that it remains suitable and sufficient.

5. The requirement to restrict exposure as far as reasonably practicable now includes explicit provisions requiring the proper maintenance, examination and test of any engineering control, design feature, safety feature or warning device provided to restrict exposure. Also, there is a new provision concerning the working conditions of female employees who have declared to their employer that they are pregnant or breastfeeding.

6. The limits on effective dose (dose to the whole body) under IRR99 are:

• for employees aged 18 years or over, 20 millisieverts in a calendar year (except that in special cases employers may apply a dose limit of 100 millisieverts in 5 years with no more than 50 millisieverts in a single year, subject to strict conditions);

• for trainees, 6 millisieverts in a calendar year; and

• for any other person, including members of the public, 1 millisievert in a calendar year.

7. The main requirement for designating an area as a controlled area is that special procedures are needed in that area to restrict significant exposure to ionising radiation or to prevent radiation accidents. In practice, given the advice in the HSC Approved Code of Practice, it is expected that many areas currently designated as controlled areas will remain much the same as now.

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