The Hindu : New Delhi News : Move to ensure radiation safety

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 03, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Move to ensure radiation safety

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, NOV. 2. Nearly two decades after the Government laid down rules to protect workers and patients from hazardous medical diagnostic X-ray equipments and installations, officials in the Capital finally woke up to its "shabby'' implementation this past week.

In a decision to ensure radiation safety, the Delhi Government has written to all diagnostic centres and clinics in the city using "radiation'' machines to tighten their safety system and shape up or face heavy fine and even cancellation of permit.

The move comes after a few amendments were carried out in the original Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) safety regulations issued in 1986 and numerous complaints of "hazardous'' exposure. Finally having taken a step forward to implement the rule, the Directorate of Health Services (Delhi), has written to all centres doing radiography, fluoroscopy, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT) Imaging Scan, Mammography and X-rays to strictly follow the guidelines, fill in the issued questioner and also submit a compliance report or face penalty.

According to a survey, Delhi has about 1,250 registered centres using the facility and many more unregistered and new centres come up annually. Now asking the centres to -- follow the rules in totality -- the "safety code'' will cover room layout for a radiation installation, protection and work practice, personnel requirement and responsibility, dose limits, and qualification of the personnel operating the machines.

"The safety code for medical diagnostic X-ray equipment and installations has been well laid out. For many years now the rules haven't been implemented and wilful breach of these norms is rampant in the city's hospitals and diagnostic clinics and so people remain exposed to the hazards of radiation emission. According to a conservative estimate, the number of x-ray facility and ultrasound facility increase manifold annually, putting more people under danger,'' said the chairman of the Nursing Home and Medical Establishment Forum, Delhi Medical Association (DMA), Prem Aggarwal.

Scientific data has shown that the radiation can cause ionisation of cells in a human body, which could lead to a series of radio-chemical and bio-chemical reactions, resulting in or causing grave damage to important bio-molecules such as proteins and DNA. Such damage could further lead to inhibition of cell division, chromosome aberrations, gene mutation and even cell death.

"It would be seen that uncontrolled radiation received by a human being for a long time is capable of leading to diseases like blood cancer, skin cancer mostly on hands, shortening of life span, impotency in males and infertility in females,'' explained a physician.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi