Christie Medical Physics and Engineering Newsletter 70 May 2022

the criteria (occupied basement or in an Affected Area) will need to be assessed.

Co-operation between employers

When employees of one Employer work on the premises of another Employer, there should be cooperation and appropriate exchange of information between Employers in order to coordinate measures required to comply with statutory duties, to inform each other of the risks to employees, the control measures in place and to allocate responsibilities for aspects of the management. This includes a need to share information when work will take place in a building where radon levels exceed 300Bq/m 3 , even if the employees will not be exposed to any other source of ionising radiation as part of their work. The Health and Safety Executive have updated their advice to reflect the increasing numbers of people working from home. It is the HSE’s expectation that employers will consider radon levels as part of risk assessments for staff who work from home. Employers should therefore include a check on the radon status of each employee’s home as part of their home working risk assessment. All employees should be advised to perform domestic radon monitoring if they will be working in a basement. Employees who live in radon affected areas should be further advised to perform radon monitoring if they are working on the ground floor. Employees living in rented accommodation should be advised to contact their landlord regarding radon monitoring, as they are legally obligated to provide this for all basement properties, and for ground floor properties in radon affected areas. If the results of domestic radon monitoring are between 200 and 300 Bq/m 3 then working from home is permitted, but the employee should be strongly advised to pursue radon mitigation options to protect their family’s health. If the results are above 300 Bq/m 3 then the employee must not be permitted to work from home unless radon mitigation measures are put in place to bring the levels below this threshold. Staff working from home

Site specific reports

The radon map is divided into 1km 2 sectors which are shaded according to the maximum radon potential at any point within that sector. It is therefore possible that specific addresses within a sector may have a lower radon potential than indicated by the map. For this reason Employers whose premises are in radon Affected Areas (according to the map) may wish to purchase a site specific report. Small properties (less than 25m in length) can order these reports from UKHSA while for larger buildings or groups of buildings a British Geological Survey report is required. Monitors can be ordered from UKHSA or other validated radon testing services. For large properties it may be advisable to contact the testing service for advice regarding the number of monitors required and suitable locations before placing an order. Note that monitors will need to remain in place for 3 months and any building work in the area during the monitoring period will invalidate the result, so monitoring should be planned accordingly. Following is a flowchart to determine whether rad on assessment is required on the employer’s premises: Assessing radon levels

Raising awareness with employees

Awareness of radon and the need for monitoring is poor among the general population. Therefore, the HSE

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