Stakeholders brainstorm on radiation safety standard

 The authority also embarked on a survey of facilities in Makurdi local government of Benue State and discovered that only 18 operators have completed authorisation forms while it identified 42 facilities with radiation emitting devices.
 Worried by the risk posed by the devices to human health and the environment despite its beneficial uses, the NNRA therefore thought it expedient to hold a forum where participants and delegates would talk about the national and international standards guarding the safe use of ionising radiation.
 To this end, stakeholders from the North-Central states converged on Makurdi last Tuesday to consider such issues as quality control, status of radiation safety in diagnostic and interventional radiology practices as well as regulatory frame work for radiation safety among others.
 Speaking at the opening ceremony, Benue State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Orduen Abunku, harped on the need for users of radiation emitting devices to adhere strictly to regulatory standards.
 Abunku in his remark at the workshop titled “Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Practice” held in Makurdi by the north central office of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) in conjunction with Benue Ministry of Health said: “In fact, nearly everyone in our urban cities in Nigeria is likely to undergo exposure to X-ray for medical diagnostic purpose in his or her lifetime. Therefore, it is important that radiation safety standards are adhered to in order to optimise doses to the patients, workers and the public.”
 The commissioner explained that the workshop presents a unique opportunity to participants to acquire needed knowledge and therefore appealed to owners of private and government medical establishments in the state using radioactive facilities to comply with regards to regulatory control as it is the area where the use of ionising radiation is extensive.
 Earlier, the North Central zonal coordinator of NNRA, Samuel Oyeyemi, said the workshop became imperative following the risk posed by diagnostic radiology facilities to human health, just like any other known human occupation.
He said the participants, drawn from the North Central states would gain insight about national and international standards guarding the safe use of ionising radiation based on the inventory of diagnostic facilities carried out by NNRA which showed that there are thousands of ionising radiation generating equipment in Nigeria and hundreds in Benue.
Oyeyemi further called on users of the facilities to give its officials easy access to their facilities during a pilot survey which would be carried out soon, warning that, “denying our inspectors access will be a breach of the law and may force the NNRA to take legal action against such prospective licenses.”