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comparable with that from a luminous watch, and experimental procedures are
adopted to reduce exposure to a minute level. In practice, no pupil would receive
a dose of ionising radiation above one-tenth of that arising from cosmic radiation.
A few schools have obtained authority to use an X-ray unit recently developed
for school use and approved by the Department of Education and Science. This
unit also gives a very low rate of emission and does not create any hazard to health.
Further education courses involving repair and maintenance of colour television
receivers have now been running for over 12 months. Monitoring of radiation
hazards to staff and students has established that there is no hazard to health. The
services of the Radiological Protection Service have been valuable in establishing
suitable operational procedures.
Establishments of further education and teacher training colleges need not
obtain the approval of the Secretary of State if work at "school level" only is
being performed. One technical college and the teacher training college fall within
this category.
For all establishments of education the full provision set out in the Code of
Practice (H.M.S.O., 1964) must be applied if work of a higher level than the "school
level" is undertaken and the Principal School Medical Officer is consulted when
application for approval is made to the Secretary of State. There is one technical
college in the borough within this category.
In 1964 the Department of Education and Science, the Ministry of Health,
the Scottish Home and Health Department and the Ministry of Health and Local
Government for Northern Ireland, jointly produced a Code of Practice for the
Protection of Persons against Ionising Radiations arising from Medical and Dental
use.
The Code of Practice applies to the use of ionising radiations arising from
X-ray machines in the council's dental clinics. There are eight clinics using X-ray
machines and approximately 1,315 X-ray exposures were taken; 1,112 were for
orthodontic purposes and the remainder were taken during the course of general
dental treatment. A total of 542 pupils had an X-ray examination.
The code applies to all persons who are exposed to ionising radiations arising
from dental practice and there are 13 such persons employed by the council. As
the overall rate of radiation exposure is low our dental staff have not been designated
as radiation workers and individual four-weekly film tests made every six
months have ensured that operating conditions remain satisfactory.
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