Strengthening Radiation Protection of Occupational Workers in Radiotherapy Practice in India: Regulatory Perspective

Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has stipulated various safety requirements in Safety Code No. AERB/RF-MED/SC-1 (Rev. 1),2011 on "Radiation Therapy Sources, Equipment and Installation" under legal provisions and compliance is ensured through process of licensing, regulatory inspection, enforcement, periodic safety review, safety performance evaluation of design of radiation equipment and sources for protecting occupational workers. Further, AERB has taken several steps such as implementation of LMOS in Radiotherapy installations, establishing mechanism for Installation of radiotherapy machine as per approved room layout(vault), verification of shielding adequacy of radiotherapy vault before permitting radiation measurement for commissioning the radiotherapy machine, revision/ development/ of acceptance criteria/QA test protocol of radiotherapy equipment by incorporating safety systems and failsafe mechanism referring relevant international documents, introduction of electronic safety performance indicator, compliance verification through regulatory inspection for strengthening radiation protection measures for occupational workers in radiotherapy facilities. (author)