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57
The Council had been in touch with the Association of Municipal
Corporations. Early in the year they were informed that the Minister
was opening discussions with Local Authority Associations and one
matter to be discussed was the provision of information to local authorities
necessary to enable them to carry out their functions. The Minister
of Housing and Local Government stressed that the ultimate responsibility
must rest on the Government because the major artificial additions to
background radioactivity are from sources not susceptible to local control.
The present position is:
In regard to the medical and industrial use of radio-isotopes, X-ray
equipment, etc., the Health Department of the Ministry of Housing
and Local Government has appointed a committee under Lord Adrian
to review present practice in the field of radiotherapy and radiology.
As regards factories, the primary responsibility rests with the Ministry
of Labour who have many factory inspectors specially trained for this
purpose. New regulations will supplement the present provisions of the
Factories Act to provide a complete industrial safety code.
The Home Office have agreed with the manufacturers and users a
safety code governing the use of shoe-fitting fiuoroscopes.
Guidance has been issued to local education authorities about the
use of X-ray equipment in technical colleges and schools.
In regard to fall-out, the Government has a full programme for the
measurement of fall-out in this country as a result of nuclear weapon
tests. Some thousands of samples of milk, water, foodstuffs and human
bones are being tested each year under arrangements supervised by the
Agricultural and Medical Research Councils.
The Atomic Energy Authority is, by the Atomic Energy Authority
Act, 1954, barred from discharging radioactive waste except in accordance
with authorisations given by the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister
of Housing and Local Government. These arrangements are to be
extended to other nuclear installations. The powers under the general
body of public health legislation do not provide an adequate means of
applying to other radio-isotope users corresponding controls. The position
in regard to radioactive waste was made clearer towards the end of the
year when the Radioactive Substances Bill was presented to Parliament,
and a White Paper on the Control of Radioactive Waste was issued.
The Bill provided that users of radioactive waste would need to be registered
and that authorisation would be required for the disposal of radioactive
wastes; also that the control should be exercised by the Central
Government, provision being made for sending copies of the registrations
and authorisation certificates to local authorities.
For the control of the transport of radioactive materials by road,
the Ministry of Transport expected regulations to be ready early in the
New Year.
Although it would seem that no direct responsibility will be imposed
on local authoriries, the question of the training of public health staff
being considered by a committee under the chairmanship of Sir Douglas