Preamble
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Forty-fourth Session on 1 June 1960, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the protection of workers against ionising radiations, which is the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation supplementing the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960,
adopts this twenty-second day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Radiation Protection Recommendation, 1960:
I. General Provisions
- 1. This Recommendation should be given effect to by means of laws or regulations, codes of practice or other appropriate means. In applying the provisions of the Recommendation the competent authority should consult with representatives of employers and workers.
- 2.
- (1) This Recommendation applies to all activities involving exposure of workers to ionising radiations in the course of their work.
- (2) This Recommendation does not apply to radioactive substances, whether sealed or unsealed, nor to apparatus generating ionising radiations which substances or apparatus, owing to the limited doses of ionising radiations which can be received from them, are exempted from its provisions by one of the methods of giving effect to the Recommendation mentioned in Paragraph 1.
- 3. For the purpose of giving effect to paragraph 2 of Article 3 of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, every Member should have due regard to the recommendations made from time to time by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and standards adopted by other competent organisations.
II. Maximum Permissible Levels
- 4. The levels referred to in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, should be fixed with due regard to the relevant values recommended from time to time by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. In addition, maximum permissible concentrations of radioactive substances in such air and water as can be taken into the body should be fixed on the basis of these levels.
- 5. Appropriate measures of collective and individual protection should be taken to ensure that the maximum permissible levels referred to in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, are not exceeded and that the maximum permissible concentrations referred to in Paragraph 4 are not exceeded for such air and water as may be taken into the body.
III. Competent Person
- 6. The employer should appoint a competent person to deal on behalf of the undertaking with questions of protection against ionising radiations.
IV. Methods of Protection
- 7.
- (1) In cases where they ensure effective protection preference should be given to methods of collective protection, both physical and operational.
- (2) Wherever methods of collective protection are inadequate, personal protective equipment and, as necessary, appropriate protective procedures should be used.
- 8.
- (1) All protective devices, appliances and apparatus should be so designed or modified as to fulfil their intended purpose.
- (2) All appropriate measures should be taken to provide for regular examination of these devices, appliances and apparatus, in order to determine whether they are in good condition, are operating satisfactorily, are properly sited and provide the required protection; in particular they should be examined before being put into use and whenever changes are made in procedures, equipment or shielding.
- (3) Any defects found in these devices, appliances and apparatus should be remedied at once; if necessary, the equipment to which they are fitted should be taken immediately out of service and kept out of service until the defects have been remedied.
- (4) The competent authority should require the inspection in an appropriate manner and at regular intervals of major items of protective equipment and in particular of monitoring equipment.
- 9.
- (1) Unsealed sources should be manipulated with due regard to their toxicity.
- (2) The methods of manipulation should be chosen with a view to minimising the risk of entry of radioactive substances into the body and the spread of radioactive contamination.
- 10. Plans should be made in advance for measures--
- (a) to detect as promptly as possible any leakage from, or breakage of, a sealed source of radioactive substances which may involve a risk of radioactive contamination; and
- (b) to take prompt remedial action to prevent the further spread of radioactive contamination and to apply other appropriate safety precautions, including decontamination procedures, with, as necessary, the immediate collaboration of all authorities concerned.
- 11. Sources which may involve exposure of workers to ionising radiations, and the areas in which such an exposure may occur or where workers may be exposed to radioactive contamination, should be identified, in appropriate cases, by means of easily recognisable warnings.
- 12. All sources of radioactive substances, whether sealed or unsealed, in use or stored by an undertaking, should be appropriately recorded.
- 13.
- (1) The competent authority should require any employer or undertaking using or having possession of radioactive substances to make reports as prescribed by it on the use of these substances.
- (2) The competent authority should prescribe the conditions under which such substances should be stored when not in use.
- 14. No radioactive substance should be transferred to another employer or undertaking without such notification as may be required by the competent authority.
- 15.
- (1) Any person who has reason to believe that a radioactive source has been lost, mislaid, stolen or damaged should immediately notify the competent person referred to in Paragraph 6 above or, if this is not possible, another responsible person who should pass the information to the competent person as soon as possible.
- (2) If the loss, theft or damage is confirmed, the competent authority should be notified without delay.
- 16. In view of the special medical problems involved in the employment of women of child-bearing age in radiation work every care should be taken to ensure that they are not exposed to high radiation risks.
V. Monitoring
- 17.
- (1) Appropriate monitoring of workers and places of work should be carried out in order to measure the exposure of workers to ionising radiations and radioactive substances, with a view to ascertaining that the applicable levels are respected.
- (2) In the case of external radiation, this monitoring should be effected by films, dosemeters or other suitable means.
- (3) In the case of internal radiation, when there is reason to believe that the maximum permissible levels may be approached or have been exceeded, this monitoring should include tests--
- (a) for radioactive contamination;
- (b) if practicable, for body burden.
- (4) In addition to measurement of the exposure of the whole body, the monitoring should make it possible to determine the partial exposure of that part of the body where the greatest harm could be done.
- 18. The competent authority should, where appropriate, require tests to be made for the purpose of detecting contamination of the hands, the body and the clothes of persons leaving a workplace.
- 19. Persons who carry out monitoring in pursuance of the provisions of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, and of this Recommendation, should be afforded adequate equipment and facilities for carrying out this work.
VI. Medical Examinations
- 20. All medical examinations referred to in the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, should be carried out by a suitably qualified physician.
- 21. In the cases referred to in Article 13 of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, all necessary special medical examinations should be carried out.
- 22. The medical examinations referred to in the preceding Paragraphs should not involve the workers in any expense.
- 23. Physicians who carry out such medical examinations should be afforded adequate facilities for ascertaining the conditions of work of the workers concerned.
- 24. For all workers who undergo such medical examinations health records should be established and kept in accordance with the requirements of the competent authority.
- 25. These health records should be in a form standardised at the national level.
- 26. So far as practicable a complete record of all doses received in the course of work by every worker specified in Paragraph 24 of this Recommendation should be kept so that the cumulative dose may be taken into account for employment purposes.
- 27. If, as the result of such medical advice as is envisaged in Article 14 of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, it is inadvisable to subject a worker to further exposure to ionising radiations in that worker's normal employment, every reasonable effort should be made to provide such a worker with suitable alternative employment.
VII. Inspection and Notification
- 28. The inspection services referred to in Article 15 of the Radiation Protection Convention, 1960, should include, or have readily available, a sufficient number of persons fully conversant with radiation hazards and qualified to advise on protection against ionising radiations.
- 29.
- (1) Representatives of these inspection services should be empowered to take steps with a view to the remedying of defects observed in installations, apparatus or working methods which they may have reasonable cause to believe constitute a threat to the health or safety of the workers by reason of ionising radiations.
- (2) In order to enable representatives of the inspection services to take such steps they should be empowered, subject to any right of appeal to a judicial or administrative authority which may be provided by laws or regulations, to make or to have made orders requiring--
- (a) such alterations to the installation or plant, to be carried out within a specified time limit, as may be necessary to secure compliance with the provisions relating to the health or safety of the workers;
- (b) measures with immediate executory force if the danger to the health or safety of the workers makes this necessary.
- 30.
- (1) Every member should provide for measures to control the distribution and use of sources of ionising radiations.
- (2) These measures should include--
- (a) the notification to the competent authority, as prescribed by it, of the delivery of such sources;
- (b) before work involving exposure of workers to ionising radiations is undertaken for the first time and before substantial extensions or alterations to apparatus or installations emitting ionising radiations or affording protection against them are carried out, the notification to the competent authority, as prescribed by it, of information concerning the nature of the apparatus or installation and of the measures provided for protection against ionising radiations.
- 31. The employer should notify the competent authority, as prescribed by it, of a final cessation of work involving exposure of workers to ionising radiations.
VIII. Co-operation of Employers and Workers
- 32. Every effort should be made by both the employers and the workers to secure the closest co-operation in carrying out the measures for protection against ionising radiations.
