Radiation

To mark #SunAwarenessWeek, IOSH highlights steps to take to protect workers from harmful ultraviolet radiation.

A survey recently completed by SC Johnson ProfessionalTM showed that only one in four outdoor workers wore sun protection cream during 2018’s summer months – despite this being one of the hottest summers on record with above average hours of sunshine.

How do you “bring occupational cancer out of the shadows and prevent it?” That was the challenge presented to more than 40 influential stakeholders, including IOSH, EU-OSHA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) at a summit in Paris on 26 April.

In considering radiation as a health hazard, two types are identified. The first includes the high-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum (such as X-rays and gamma rays) as well as particle radiation (such as the alpha and beta particles emitted by radioactive sources). Non-ionising radiation describes the middle and lower energy regions of the spectrum. In the mid-range, optical radiation includes ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared, and in the lower range electromagnetic fields (EMFs) include those arising from power cables, microwaves and radio sources.

Sellafield has been fined £380,000 after a worker received eight times the annual whole-body exposure limit of plutonium.

The operator of the world’s largest nuclear waste storage and reprocessing site in Cumbria intends to admit a health and safety breach.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the safety regulator for the civil nuclear industry in the UK, said it has notified Sellafield of its intention to prosecute under s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The announcement comes after the ONR investigated an incident on 5 February 2017 that resulted in the “personal contamination to a Sellafield employee”.

The copy for the following press release has been provided by NHS England.Eighty percent of people involved in country life in the South of England think outdoor workers are at greater risk of developing skin cancer due to longer exposure to the sun, a survey of Mole Valley customers suggests.But while more than half of respondents said that protecting yourself from the sun was “very important” more than a quarter said they “hardly ever” used suncream.

NHS England’s Cover Up, Mate campaign, supported by IOSH and its No Time to Lose campaign, has been exhibited at The New Forest and Hampshire County Show this week (25-27 July). Cover Up, Mate urges men who spend long periods of time outdoors to protect themselves against the sun. Farmers are a key focus of the campaign because of their potential prolonged exposure to solar radiation.

Words: Tina WeadickThe word “Sellafield” was guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of children growing up on the east coast of Ireland in the 1980s. In the days before the Cold War began to thaw, anything to do with “the bomb” was frightening. But those of us living so close to Europe’s most complex nuclear site felt we had more to be worried about than most.