The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Specific Safety Guide No. SSG-11 which relates to Radiation Safety in Industrial Radiography states that radiography companies must ensure that employees (Category A Workers and potentially others who enter controlled areas) are subject to regular dose assessments in order to ensure that radiation doses are kept as low as reasonably achievable and dose limits are not exceeded. It is essential that reliable dose information is collected to ensure that the exposure of workers is properly controlled. Furthermore, dose assessments will also serve to highlight bad (and good) working practices. To meet this requirement, the employer will engage an Approved Dosimetry Service (ADS) so that they may provide suitable personal dosimeters together with a formal dose record keeping service.

Radiation safety and source security is becoming an increasing concern across all market sectors, with the illegal possession and illicit movement of radioactive sources having potentially severe consequences to site workers and both national and global communities. A necessary precaution taken by numerous facilities to ensure source security is the use of fixed area radiation monitors which provide the dose rate levels of source storage bunkers and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) radiography bays.

The use of radioactive sources in hospitals requires many safety measures to be implemented to ensure that workers and the general public are protected. Although there are a number of measures such as shielding, dose rate and contamination monitoring and personal dosimetry that can be used to record radiation exposure, a key method of ensuring the safety of nurses, doctors and patients, is the use of fixed area radiation monitors. Fixed area monitors use multiple detectors to provide the dose rate levels of iodine therapy centres, patient treatment rooms and nuclear medicine departments. Critical and potentially life saving information is provided as fixed area monitors incorporate 24/7 monitoring with an early warning alarm that inform patients and staff when dose rates exceed set alarm thresholds. This ensures that all radiation risks are managed safely which is key to safer working practices for all personnel working within a medical environment.