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Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - Syrian Arab Republic (RATIFICATION: 1964)

1. In its previous direct request, the Committee had noted that a draft Order concerning the protection of workers against ionising radiations had been prepared to replace Order No. 269 of 1977 and Order No. 1112 of 1973, taking into account the Committee's previous comments and international recommendations. The Committee notes from the Government's latest report that the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the Social Insurance Institute has studied the situation in order to elaborate a new draft decree which would take into account the comments made by the Committee as concerns the maximum permissible level of exposure to ionising radiation and the criteria for establishing these levels, as well as the measures to be taken and dose limits set for abnormal situations. In this regard, the Committee would call the Government's attention to its General Observation under this Convention which sets forth the revised exposure limits established on the basis of new physiological findings by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in its 1990 Recommendations (Publication No. 60). The Committee would recall that, under Article 3, paragraph 1, and Article 6, paragraph 2, of the Convention, all appropriate steps shall be taken to ensure effective protection of workers against ionising radiations and to review maximum permissible doses of ionising radiations in the light of current knowledge.

The Committee hopes that the draft Order will be adopted in the near future and that current knowledge, as reflected in the General Observation, will have been taken into account in its elaboration. The Government is requested to provide a copy of the Order as soon as it is adopted and to indicate the manner in which the representatives of employers' and workers' organisations were consulted in its elaboration, in accordance with Article 1 of the Convention.

2. Point V of the report form. As the Government's report did not contain a reply to this point of the Committee's previous comments, the Government is once again requested to provide information on the organisation of the inspection services carried out by the Social Insurance Institute and to indicate how the Convention is applied in practice.