Mumbai: Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India will set up a Directorate of Radiation Safety (DRS) to strengthen the regulatory control on medical diagnostic x-ray facilities in Maharashtra and Odisha, an official said here Thursday.
This will increase the number of states to 10 in the country where similar facilities have been set to keep check on the medical diagnostic x-ray procedures.
There are around 50,000 diagnostic radiology facilities utilizing x-rays all over the country and a large number of patients undergo diagnostic procedures every year.
“These units, if not designed or operated properly, may lead to unwanted radiation exposure to the patients as well as the operators,” an AERB spokesperson said here.
The AERB, the national regulatory body for enforcement of radiological safety regulations, conducts safety review and assessments of these machines.
The other states where DRS will be set up are: Kerala, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and now Maharashtra and Odisha.
While the DRS in Kerala and Mizoram have already become functional, the AERB is in the process of setting up similar facility and signing agreements with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
These machines function under stringent safety regulations including design certification, type approval/NOC, layout approval, registration of x-ray equipment, commissioning of x-ray equipment, inspection of x-ray installations, de-commissioning of x-ray installations, certification of radiological safety officers and certification of service engineers.
In view of the huge growth in medical diagnostic installations utilising medical x-rays, the AERB had initiated a process to decentralize their regulations at the state-level by setting DRS in various states.