NDT company fined by HSE for failings in the way it carried out industrial radiography work
Radiography is just one of the tools the industry uses to verify and assure quality during EPIC stages, everyone involved in a project has the responsibility to ensure health and safety standards are observed. This report published by HSE provides important information:
Testing company fined for failings in the way it carried out industrial radiography work
A company that carries out non-destructive testing has been fined for failings in the way it carried out gamma radiography work at its site in Holmewood, Chesterfield.
Chesterfield Magistrates’ Court heard an employee of Applied Inspection Limited was carrying out gamma radiography work, during March and April 2014, when his passive personal radiation dosimeter (Thermo Luminescent Dosimeter / TLD badge) was found to have registered an overexposure, which was above the annual statutory limit.
The company and employee were unable to explain why the TLD badge came back with a high reading. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the employee did not receive a radiation overdose for the period in question.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that there were inadequate safeguarding standards for gamma radiography work in the enclosure being used in this incident. The other ‘gamma enclosures’ on site were found to have the correct guarding standards. Work procedures, risk assessments and local rules were also found to be insufficient.
Applied Inspection Limited, of Old Colliery Lane, Heath Road, Holmewood, Chesterfield, was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,914 after pleading guilty to an offence under Regulation 8(1) of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999.
After the hearing HSE inspector Lyn Mizen said: “The basic principle on which the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 are based is that there is no safe dose of ionising radiation. Due to the hazards and risks associated with carrying out industrial radiography work it is critical that companies ensure that all aspects of it are carried out diligently and with the highest level of integrity, engineering safety devices and management control systems to enable the risks to be controlled to as low as reasonably practicable.”
