Radiation safety standards highlighted

Karachi
The Radiation Safety Committee (RSC), Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ziauddin University Hospital (ZUH), organised a symposium titled “Radiation and Health Imaging: Hazards to Healthcare Workers” to spread knowledge about hazards and safe ways of handling radiation by healthcare providers.
The RSC chairperson and head of the nuclear medicine department of the ZUH, Dr Nosheen Fatima, elaborated the role and vision of the committee in reliable and accurate radiation therapy measures.
She urged the need for maintaining a safe environment at practices involving radiations.
“We all are exposed to radiation from the sun, rocks, food and other natural resources,” she said while discussing how people were exposed to radiations.
She said about 80 percent of radiation exposure to mankind was from natural resources while medical and professional exposure contributed up to 20 percent.
Syed Mishkat Ali Jafri, principal of the Scientific Officer Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), spoke about the fundamentals of safety principles, the core functions and responsibilities of the PNRA in monitoring the radiation exposure and ensuring the safe handling of radiation in Pakistan, and how to apply radiation safety standards in various fields.
“Our mission is to protect radiation workers, public and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation.”
The section head of nuclear medicine and associate professor of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Dr Maseeh-uz-Zaman, discussed the direct and indirect effects of radiation and its acute syndromes such as hematologic, gastrointestinal and central nervous system syndrome.
He affirmed that early effects may occur with around 25 rem and greater while stochastic effects occurred after an extended chronic exposure to radiation.
He added that these effects were difficult to quantify and may take a lot of time to become evident.