Latest update March 21st, 2025 5:44 AM
Efforts ongoing to ensure minimum exposure of public to radioactive substances – EPA
Kaieteur News – Even as Guyana’s proposed legislation for radiation safety and security is underway, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to ensure that the public’s exposure to radioactive substances is at a minimum.
This is according to Tashana Redmond, a Senior Officer attached to the Technical Services Department of the EPA.
Speaking on a recently aired episode of the EPA’s – “The Environment Matters”, Redmond addressed the public concerns about how radiation and radioactive substances are used in Guyana.
The EPA official noted that the “wave type energy source,” can be used in harmful and non-harmful ways. She noted that Guyana has limited radiation sources, which do not pose a risk to people located 100 metres outside the source.
Tashana Redmond, Technical Services Department Officer
“There are five categories of sources, ranging from category one to category five and in this case, category one is the strongest source. In the country now, we do not have any category one sources; a nuclear power plant would be classified as a category one source,” she said.
Redmond continued, “At present, there are category two to five sources in the country. However, category two is in limited quantities and this source does not pose a risk to persons outside of 100 metres from where the source is. The only way that becomes dangerous is if that source is exposed by means of an explosion or fire or something.”
The environmental officer said that in the meantime, the EPA has been working with the various corporations and entities to ensure that the risk to public safety remains low.
“You find them mostly in the medical field; in the dental shops… The EPA is playing the role of ensuring regulatory management of these sources. We ensure safety in terms of having adequate physical protection systems in place and security in terms of delaying any threats of the source.”
She noted that besides the medical sector, the construction, mining, beverage manufacturing and oil and gas sector also use radioactive substances.
As such, Redmond said several companies have been applying for the use of radioactive substances in their respective fields of work.
She noted that while many concerns have been raised surrounding the public’s safety, the EPA has its officers working to make certain that the public is not exposed or harmed by any radioactive substance.
“Companies applying for the use of radioactive substances must follow requirements before being given authorisation to use such materials. We ensure that adequate systems are put in place that the sources are handled properly: proper storage, proper training for those who handle them, proper security, so they are not stolen and end up in the wrong hands,” she said.
Redmond noted that the application process and requirements can be found on the agency’s website.
“It’s titled, ‘An Application for Radioactive Sources’, and within it, it deals with nuclear safety as well as radiation protection…A critical (requirement) is that they have to share with us their inventory of sources, so we did the initial inventory in 2017, and we continue to build on that inventory.”
“The inventory allows (us) to know where the sources are, who are the responsible persons for the sources, the activity level of the sources, and as result of that, we can categorise them,” she said.
At present, the officer said, the EPA does have the necessary equipment, such as the radiation backpack, among other things, to routinely monitor radiation levels, to ensure companies that are authorised do not exceed the required limit.
Redmond said that apart from monitoring, companies that are authorised to use radioactive substances are also required to notify the EPA when they are transporting such substances.
“The agency is notified of any movement in sources from one location to the other. Our recent detection exercises have confirmed that the radiation…is not above the allowable limit,” Redmond related.
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