How to Protect Your Employees and Reduce Radiation Exposure at the Workplace

If you happen to run a business or manufacturing establishment that deals in radioactive products and materials, then it’s your due diligence as an employer and business owner to protect your employees against the effects of radiation.

Negligence Ignorance of safety precautions could lead to your employees suffering from health complications caused by continued exposure to radiation.

Radiation is known to affect the human body cells, which it can either destroy or severely damage.

The health implications can either be “chronic” meaning that the effects can become identifiable years after one has been exposed, or they can be “acute” which entails radiation symptoms showing up shortly after exposure. Acute radiation exposure can cause subjects to develop reddened hair and hair loss, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and at times victims may even succumb to death.

Chronic radiation effects may cause varied types of cancer in people. It may also lead to blemished nervous system cells and bone marrow. Radiation can also cause employees to give birth to children who have “genetic” complications after exposure.

Expectant mothers in working environments that tend to experience high levels of radiation need to be particularly careful since radiation can affect the development and growth of the fetus’s brain and could result in mental complications and childhood related cancers.

Safety Precautions Business Owners Can Take to Aid Reduce Staff Exposure to Radiation

1. Ensure that all staff members (including management) have regular and complete safety training 

As an employer running a company that has work areas containing levels of radiation, it is your responsibility to ensure that you organize training aimed at enlightening your employees on the safety and precaution measures which they need to observe when working in radioactive areas.

By doing so, your staff members will be knowledgeable about any safety precautions they need to take whenever they are expected to fulfill job duties in a radiation restricted area. This will allow them to perform their tasks in an efficient manner without having to panic and worry over radiation contamination.

2. The Use of Suitable Protection to Guarantee the Safety of Your Workers

Depending on the radiation type, using protective materials such as concrete, aluminum, plastic, and glass can help to act as a barrier between your employees and the radiation waves.

You could source protective clothing and eyewear from www.lancsindustries.com and mandate all workers to wear whenever fulfilling operational duties in a radiation workspace.

3. Enforce and Ensure That Your Workers Maintain a Safe Distance from Radioactive Sources

You can take considerable measures such as securing systems that produce radioactive waves in an enclosed structure and using remote devices when working around radiation-emitting equipment and materials. You can also ensure that your employees operate radioactive materials from a safe range out of the radioactive area at all times.

Also Read:- 05 Tips on Prioritizing the Mental Health of Your Remote Workers

In scenarios where there may be downtime at the place of work or work delays, staff members should be out of the radiation areas to minimize their exposure.

Originally posted 2020-12-15 00:19:00.