The Director General of the National Radiation Protection Agency, NRPA, Dr Augustin Simo has expressed joy at the acquisition by his agency of new state-of-the-art equipment for the measurement of levels of exposure to ionising radiation to which hospital and industrial workers in the country are exposed.

Speaking yesterday March 1 at the Bastos, Yaounde head office of the agency at the beginning of a five-day period of testing the equipment acquired with assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, the Director General said the equipment will now put an end to the time and money hitherto spent in taking the recordings abroad for reading; adding that the monthly recordings will henceforth be done and results given on the spot.

He disclosed that the acquisition of the FCFA 52 worth equipment was jointly funded by government and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and included 1,500 dosimeters and readers. He announced that a token sum would be paid by employers of staff working in conditions of exposure to ionising radiation for the monthly monitoring service. Before now, it was gathered, recordings that were taken abroad for reading, cost FCFA 8,000.

According to the visiting IAEA expert and representative of the manufacturers of the equipment, Dr Marc Million, the equipment is the same as used elsewhere in the Western world and has the advantage of being easy to move around and to manipulate. He promised that NRPA staff will be given basic training on its maintenance. Speaking earlier at the beginning of the ceremony, Dr Maurice Moyo Ndontchueng, Head of Unit for Dosimetry at NRPA, announced that an earlier survey carried out in the country revealed that there are 630 hospital and industrial staff working under conditions that expose them to ionising radiation. He said the skill upgrading training being organised for such staff all over the country was meant to prepare them for the monthly radiation level exposure measurements that will soon begin all over the country.