Finally, the Maharashtra Government wakes up to the threat of potential health risks posed by the radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted by the mobile phone towers. The government has appointed a high-level committee of experts to look into the matter and recommend norms for erecting the towers. Radiation protection-dedicated blogs (http://radsafe.blogspot.com and http://icareforyou2007.blogspot.com) and the Mumbai Mirror have been continuously publishing posts/reports asking for regulation on the installation of towers and control on usage of mobile phones by children and others.
Research findings have shown that the radiation is harmful and internationally accepted standards are available for controlling the exposures (see www.radsafetyinfo.com).
It is a good move by the government and the ignorant public is waiting to see how the government tackles the strong lobby of telecom service providers who will oppose the government’s move at all costs.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Nuclear energy and high safety standards
In Indian scenario, as on today, the safety status in nuclear power plants apparently looks good. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the regulator in India publishes detailed annual reports giving all the incidents occurred in the power plants and in other related facilities. Anyone can have access to these reports (www.aerb.gov.in).
However, the news papers keep on publishing insignificant and trivial occurrences, thus causing unnecessary doubts in the minds of a common man. For example: some depleted uranium pieces found with scrap dealer or tritium activity in water cooler at Kaiga, etc. etc. Depleted uranium is used as a shield material in industrial radiography cameras used for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Once scrapped, these high density spares are likely to find its way to the scrap dealers. The second incident of tritium must be a deliberate attempt by some staff member to create confusion in the plant. Tritium is the least toxic radioactive material and the limits on intake as tritiated water or as tritium gas are very high. These are some radiological incidents are NOT related to nuclear safety of the power plants and the safety record of the power plants continues to be very satisfactory.
May be, there is some need of enforcing the existing regulations strictly in the plants, and security provisions of the radioactive sources should be augmented in public domain since the sources in sealed form are used in industrial and medical therapy applications. Let us not ignore the immense benefit of radiation in comparison with small amount of risk of remotely possible incidents which are common, and much more in other industries.
However, the news papers keep on publishing insignificant and trivial occurrences, thus causing unnecessary doubts in the minds of a common man. For example: some depleted uranium pieces found with scrap dealer or tritium activity in water cooler at Kaiga, etc. etc. Depleted uranium is used as a shield material in industrial radiography cameras used for Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Once scrapped, these high density spares are likely to find its way to the scrap dealers. The second incident of tritium must be a deliberate attempt by some staff member to create confusion in the plant. Tritium is the least toxic radioactive material and the limits on intake as tritiated water or as tritium gas are very high. These are some radiological incidents are NOT related to nuclear safety of the power plants and the safety record of the power plants continues to be very satisfactory.
May be, there is some need of enforcing the existing regulations strictly in the plants, and security provisions of the radioactive sources should be augmented in public domain since the sources in sealed form are used in industrial and medical therapy applications. Let us not ignore the immense benefit of radiation in comparison with small amount of risk of remotely possible incidents which are common, and much more in other industries.
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