A series of seminars on protecting hospital and industrial workers against the negative effects of ionising radiation from the equipment they use opened yesterday February 21 at the Conference Centre, Yaounde. Organized by the National Radioactive Protection Agency, NRPA, the seminars are meant to enable participants from the Centre, South and East regions working under conditions of ionising radiation to understand the risks to which they are exposed and thus take action to protect themselves and their work environments against the effects such as skin burns, cancer and sterility.

“Most of the 620 workers using radiation equipment in the country have never received any formal, long-term training,” explained Dr Maurice Moyo Ndontchueng, an official of NRPA. He said such people had only learnt on the job by attending a few seminars, thus the need for the agency to upgrade their skills on radioactivity protection. He warned that institutions that fail to send their workers for the training will in future not benefit from the agency’s monthly monitoring of their activities.

In three years of existence, NRPA has carried out a survey of hospital and industrial workers working under conditions of ionising radiation as well as acquiring equipment for carrying out its monitoring work. Its role is to protect man and his environment from the effects of ionising radiation. A similar seminar was held in Douala last week for participants from the Littoral and South West regions. Others are planned in the near future for participants from the remaining regions. The Yaounde seminars end this Friday February 25.