Emergency Workers

What are the examples of an emergency situation?

Emergencies situation can be accident (unintentional) during the uses of radioactive material; or the intentional acts designed to hurt others, like a terrorist attack. Some of the examples are:

1. A nuclear power plant accident.
2. Nuclear explosion from a dirty bomb or Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD).
3. Radiological Exposure Device (RED).
4. Transportation Accidents.
5. Occupational Accidents.

What do I need to know?

General Safety Guide No. 7 (GSG-7) Chapter 4 covers the exposure of workers in a nuclear or radiological emergency. The requirements for protection and safety for workers in emergency exposure situations are set out in GSR Part 3 and in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 7, Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency.

There are four groups of workers who may be exposed in a nuclear or radiological emergency, owing either to their involvement in the emergency response or to the nuclear or radiological emergency at a facility or an activity itself:

1. Emergency workers who have specified duties.
2. Workers performing their duties in workplaces and not being involved in the response to a nuclear or radiological emergency.
3. Workers who are requested to stop performing their duties in workplaces and to leave the site.
4. Workers who are accidentally exposed as a result of an accident or other incident at a facility or during the conduct of an activity and whose exposure is not related to the emergency response.

What are the possible exposure pathways?

The exposure of emergency workers starts with the assignments to undertake particular action. Depending on the type of the emergency situation, the exposure pathways may also vary. There are basic exposure pathways such as contamination, inhalation, or  ingestion. The radioactive material can be found in the contaminated groundwater or surface water, hazardous substance in soil, sediment, or dust, particulate in vapor, contaminated food.

Who is responsible for your protection and safety?

The response organization and employer are responsible for restricting the exposure of emergency workers. They are responsible for:

1.  ensuring that no emergency worker is subject to an exposure in an emergency in excess of 50 mSv other than:
    
   1. For the purposes of saving life or preventing serious injury;
   2. When undertaking actions to prevent severe deterministic effects and actions to prevent the development of catastrophic conditions that could significantly affect people and the environment; or
   3. When undertaking actions to avert a large collective dose.
      
       
2. making all reasonable efforts to keep the doses received by emergency workers below the thresholds for severe deterministic effects given in IAEA Standards.
3. implement the programme for managing, controlling and recording the doses received by emergency workers in a nuclear or radiological emergency that is established by the government.
4. taking all reasonable steps to assess and record the exposures received by workers in an emergency
5. ensure that emergency workers who undertake actions in which the doses received might exceed 50 mSv do so voluntarily.

What is emergency planning?

The emergency plan that is prepared on the basis of the hazard assessment in accordance with IAEA standards in the preparedness and response for a nuclear or radiological emergency The degree of planning should be commensurate with the nature and magnitude of the risks, and the feasibility of mitigating the consequences if an emergency were to occur. The emergency plan should include the following:

1. The persons or organizations responsible for ensuring compliance with requirements for protection and safety for workers in a nuclear or radiological emergency, including those for controlling the exposure of emergency workers.
2. Specified roles and responsibilities of all workers involved in the response to a nuclear or radiological emergency.
3. Details of adequate protective actions to be taken, personal protective equipment and monitoring equipment to be used, and dosimetry arrangements.
4. Consideration of access control for workers in a nuclear or radiological emergency on the site.

What are guidance values?

As the exposure of emergency workers is intentional and controlled, the dose limits for workers should be assumed to apply unless there are overriding reasons not to apply them. Where actions for the purposes of saving life are concerned, every effort should be made to keep individual doses of emergency workers below 500 mSv for exposure to external penetrating radiation, while other types of exposure should be prevented by all possible means. However, in estimating doses to emergency workers, the exposures via all pathways, external and internal, should be assessed and should be included in the total. The value of 500 mSv should be exceeded only under circumstances in which the expected benefits to others clearly outweigh the emergency worker’s own health risks, and in which the emergency worker volunteers to take the action and understands and accepts this health risk.

References

• Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3, IAEA, Vienna (2014)
• Occupational Radiation Protection, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSG-7, IAEA, Vienna (2018) 
• Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 7, IAEA, Vienna (2015)