WA sets benchmark for radiation safety
Issue Date: - Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Western Australian mineral sands workers now have the most up-to-date workplace health information in the world with the release of the ‘Managing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in mining and mineral processing’ guideline by Resources Safety.
“WA is a major global producer of heavy mineral sands and these guidelines are there to keep employee exposures as low as reasonably practicable,” Resources Safety Executive Director Malcolm Russell said.
Mr Russell said that these guidelines were unique not only in Australia but also worldwide, and that many excellent comments had been made by peers around the country and overseas.
“These are the most detailed and comprehensive guidelines of this type in the world and are the result of more than two years of research of hundreds of scientific and technical papers by Resources Safety staff and industry representatives,” he said.
Mr Russell congratulated the efforts of Nick Tsurikov of Calytrix Consulting, who prepared the publication, facilitator Ivan Fetwadjieff, Resources Safety Senior Scientific Officer for Radiation and the input of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy (WA) Radiation Industry Group.
“These guidelines detail radiation safety methods and techniques for controlling employee exposures that have been developed by WA industry over the past 20 years, and will set the bench mark for radiation safety practices in the mining industry around the world,” he said.
“The guidelines demonstrate that government and industry continue to work cooperatively to promote the best possible safety environment for workers in the State.”
They provide all the necessary information required to set up a system of radiation protection for mining and processing in a suite of documents.
The guideline is endorsed by the Mining Industry Advisory Committee (MIAC) and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy (WA) and is available for download at: