Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - Sri Lanka (Ratification: 1986)

With reference to its observation on the Convention, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the following points.

1. Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee notes that section 8 of the Regulations on Ionizing Radiation Protection of the Atomic Energy Safety Regulations No. 1 of 1999 empowers the Atomic Energy Authority to prepare and implement codes of practice and related procedures on radiation protection for different applications upon fulfilment of these Regulations. With regard to the requirement to hold consultations with the representatives of employers and workers on the measures to be taken in application of the Convention, the Government indicates that there is no enabling law to persuade the Atomic Energy Authority to carry out such consultations. However, in practice the Atomic Energy Authority consults the representatives of employers and workers to whom the law, regulations and codes of practice or other procedures elaborated by the Atomic Energy Authority apply. The Committee therefore invites the Government to establish a legal basis rendering such consultations obligatory in order to ensure that it is not left to the discretion of the Atomic Energy Authority to decide whether consultations with the representatives of employers and workers are held on matters related to the application of the Convention.

2. Article 2. The Committee notes that pursuant to section 2 of the above Regulations in conjunction with sections 18 to 20 of the Atomic Energy Act, the provisions of the Regulations are applicable to all activities involving exposure to, or likelihood of exposure to ionizing radiations and radioactive substances and to irradiating apparatus. Section 5 of the Regulations enumerates the practices and sources within a practice, which are exempted from the requirements of these Regulations owing to their limited doses of ionizing radiation. According to section 9, the exposures from K in the body (K=Kerma, which designates the sum of initial kinetic energies of all charged ionizing particles liberated by uncharged ionizing particles in a material of mass dm) are also excluded from the scope of application of the Regulations. Section 9 further provides that any other sources as may be determined from time to time by the Atomic Energy Authority could be excluded from the scope of application of the Regulations. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to indicate whether such a list has been established by the Atomic Energy Authority.

3. Article 11. The Committee notes that section 39(a) of the Regulations imposes an obligation on the Atomic Energy Authority to maintain an individual monitoring service for the purpose of monitoring the persons exposed to ionizing radiations in order to assess both the internal and external dose received by them. To this effect, section 39(b) prescribes that the employer is obliged to ensure that every radiation worker is equipped with an appropriate individual monitoring approved by the Atomic Energy Authority to measure his or her radiation dose. Section 40(a) of the Regulations provides, if appropriate, for the carrying out of internal monitoring services of radiation workers or another person to ascertain the internal radiation doses. However, there are no provisions providing for appropriate monitoring of the workplaces. In this respect, the Committee wishes to underline the importance of the workplace monitoring aiming to identify the environmental factors that may affect workers’ health in order to enable the assessment of any possible relation between later health impairment and exposure to ionizing radiations. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated with regard to the monitoring of workplaces.

4. Article 14. With regard to the provision of alternative employment opportunities not involving exposure to ionizing radiations for workers having accumulated an effective dose beyond which detriment considered unacceptable is to arise, the Government indicates that in the case of overexposure to ionizing radiations, the Atomic Energy Authority informs the workers concerned about the level of his or her exposure and imposes on him or her a restriction period before recommencing radiation work. During this period, it is not possible for the worker concerned to find another employment as a radiation worker, since the database on dose records includes the national identity card numbers so that any attempt of the worker concerned will come to the notice of the Atomic Energy Authority through personal monitoring services. However, the Government does not indicate and the legislation does not contain any provision on the manner in which the income of the worker is maintained during that restriction period. The Committee therefore draws the Government’s attention to the explanations given in paragraphs 28 to 32 and 35(d) of its 1992 general observation under the Convention, and requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to provide the workers concerned with suitable alternative employment, or to maintain their income through social security measures or otherwise where continued work involving exposure to ionizing radiations is found to be medically inadvisable. The Government is further requested to indicate the legal basis for imposing restriction periods on workers having accumulated an effective dose of ionizing radiations, which exceeds the dose limits established.

5. The Committee finally notes the Government’s indication that the procedures and the code of practice dealing with intervention situations are being prepared. The Committee, while noting that pursuant to section 8 of the Regulations of 1999 the Atomic Energy Agency is empowered to prepare and implement codes of practice and related procedures, hopes that the new code of practice and related procedures will reflect the dose limits for emergency situations based on the 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). In this respect, the Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to the explanations provided in paragraphs 16 to 27 of its 1992 general observation under the Convention concerning the limitation of occupational exposure during and after an emergency, as well as to paragraph 35(c)(iii) concerning the strict definition of circumstances in which exceptional exposure of workers is to be allowed. The Committee further requests the Government to supply a copy of the code of practice and related procedures once they have been issued.