The Ionising Radiations Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017

Additional requirements for designated areas N.I.

19.—(1) Every employer who designates any area as a controlled or supervised area shall ensure that any such designated area—

(a) is adequately described in local rules; and

(b) has suitable and sufficient signs displayed in suitable positions warning that the area has been so designated and indicating the nature of the radiation sources and the risks arising from such sources.

(2) A controlled area shall be physically demarcated or, where this is not reasonably practicable, delineated by some other suitable means.

(3) The employer who has designated an area as a controlled area shall not permit any person to enter or remain in that area unless they—

(a) are a classified person who is not a classified outside worker;

(b) are a classified outside worker in respect of whom that employer has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the person—

(i) is subject to individual dose assessment pursuant to regulation 22;

(ii) has been provided with and has been trained to use any personal protective equipment that may be necessary pursuant to regulation 9(2)(c);

(iii) has received any specific training required pursuant to regulation 15; and

(iv) has been certified fit pursuant to regulation 25 for the work with ionising radiation which the person is to carry out; or

(c) not being a classified person, have entered or remain in the area in accordance with suitable written arrangements.

(4) The written arrangements referred to in paragraph (3)(c) shall ensure that—

(a) an employee or a non-classified outside worker aged 18 years or over, does not receive in any calendar year a cumulative dose of ionising radiation which would require that person to be designated as a classified person; or

(b) any other person does not receive in any calendar year a dose of ionising radiation exceeding any relevant dose limit.

(5) A non-classified outside worker is not permitted to enter or remain in a controlled area pursuant to paragraph (3)(c) unless they have been provided with personal protective equipment and training pursuant to paragraph (3)(b)(ii) and (iii).

(6) An employer who has designated an area as a controlled area shall not permit a person to enter or remain in such area in accordance with written arrangements pursuant to paragraph (3)(c) unless the employer can demonstrate, by personal dose monitoring or other suitable measurements, that the doses are restricted in accordance with paragraph (4).

(7) An employer who has designated an area as a controlled area shall, in relation to a classified outside worker, ensure that—

(a) the classified outside worker is subject to arrangements for estimating the dose of ionising radiation received by that worker whilst in the controlled area;

(b) as soon as is reasonably practicable after the services carried out by that classified outside worker in that controlled area are completed, an estimate of the dose received by that worker is entered into that worker's radiation passbook; and

(c) when the radiation passbook of the classified outside worker is in the possession of that employer, the passbook is made available to that worker upon request.

(8) The employer who carries out the monitoring or measurements pursuant to paragraph (6) shall keep the results of the monitoring or measurements referred to in that paragraph for a period of 2 years from the date they were recorded and shall, at the request of the person to whom the monitoring or measurements relate and on reasonable notice being given make the results available to that person.

(9) In any case where there is a significant risk of the spread of radioactive contamination from a controlled area, the employer who has designated that area as a controlled area shall make adequate arrangements to restrict, so far as is reasonably practicable, the spread of such contamination.

(10) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (9), the arrangements required by that paragraph shall, where appropriate, include—

(a) the provision of suitable and sufficient washing and changing facilities for persons who enter or leave any controlled or supervised area;

(b) the proper maintenance of such washing and changing facilities;

(c) the prohibition of eating, drinking or smoking or any similar activity to result in the ingestion, inhalation or absorption of a radioactive substance by any employee or outside worker in a controlled area; and

(d) the means for monitoring contamination—

(i) within a controlled area and, where appropriate, in the adjacent area; and

(ii) on any person, article or goods leaving a controlled area.