Are you and your employees at risk?

Can you afford to take a chance and not check your Radon levels?

Exposure to high radon levels may occur in the home, in school or in the workplace. Indoor radon levels vary greatly from one building to another and in some workplaces radon may be a significant source of occupational exposure to ionising radiation.

Since May 2000, occupational exposure to natural radiation sources, including radon, has been subject to regulatory control in Ireland. This change is in line with the most recent revision to the Euratom Basic Safety Standards Directive (Council Directive 96/29/EURATOM), which establishes a common basis for radiation protection legislation in all European Union Member States.

In Ireland the necessary laws and regulations to comply with the Directive were brought into force by the "Radiological Protection Act, 1991 (Ionising Radiation) Order, 2000" (Statutory Instrument 125 of 2000). The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) is the designated competent national authority for the purpose of the Order.

The Order sets a national Reference Level for radon gas in workplaces of 400 Bq/m3 averaged over any three-month period. In accordance with the Order, an employer or self-employed person responsible for a workplace is required to measure radon levels in the workplace on being directed to do so by the RPII.

If radon levels in a workplace are found to exceed the Reference Level, the Order requires that the undertaking take measures to safeguard the health of workers. These measures are summarised below.

• The undertaking must evaluate whether remedial measures to reduce the radon levels in the workplace should be undertaken.
• Where this evaluation shows that radon remedial measures are justified, the undertaking must implement such measures as soon as practicable.

Where remedial measures are shown not to be justified or where they fail to bring levels below the Reference Level, the undertaking must apply radiation protection measures in the workplace. Such measures might, for example, include organisation of work schedules to reduce exposure, making and keeping of exposure records, medical surveillance and controlling access to areas in the workplace where radon levels have been shown to be high.