Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2006, publiée 96ème session CIT (2007)

Convention (n° 115) sur la protection contre les radiations, 1960 - Argentine (Ratification: 1978)

1. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report.

2. Article 14. Alternative employment or other measures offered for maintaining income where continued assignment to work involving exposure is medically inadvisable. The Committee notes the Government’s reference to the activities of the National Nuclear Regulatory Agency which supervises and regulates nuclear activity and which is responsible for dictating the nuclear regulatory standards to be implemented in respect of radiological and nuclear safety, physical protection, the monitoring of the use of nuclear materials, authorization and monitoring of nuclear installations and international safeguards. The Committee also notes that, pursuant to Nuclear Regulatory Authority Resolution No. 22/01, in the event that a worker exceeds the dose limit (100 mSv) in one year “a medical and dosimetric assessment shall be carried out prior to his return to work. The head of the non-routine installation or practice shall decide whether the worker concerned may continue to be assigned to work involving exposure to sources of radiation”. The Committee notes SRT Resolutions Nos. 216/03 and 1300/04, under which the Occupational Hazards Act envisages occupational reclassification in cases where the worker is physically unable to perform the same work as before his accident or occupational illness. The Committee emphasizes that neither the Nuclear Regulatory Authority Resolution nor the resolution in respect of the Occupational Hazards Act make provision for the offering of alternative employment to workers for whom continued exposure to ionizing radiations is inadvisable for health reasons. Consequently, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to paragraphs 28-34 and 35(d) of its 1992 general observation on the Convention, and paragraph I.18 of the International Basic Safety Standards, which recommend establishing the possibility of alternative employment or social security measures for all workers who have accumulated an effective dose beyond which detriment considered unacceptable is to arise. In the light of the abovementioned indications, the Committee urges the Government to adopt the necessary measures to ensure that, for medical reasons, no worker shall be employed or shall continue to be employed, in work that involves exposure to ionizing radiations and to make every effort possible to provide these workers with suitable alternative employment or to guarantee them the means to be able to maintain their income.

3. Protection against accidents and emergency situations. The Committee notes point 144 of Nuclear Regulatory Authority Resolution No. 22/01, according to which “situations in which intervention implies the exposure of volunteers to an effective dose exceeding 1 Sv or a dose through the skin exceeding 10 Sv, may only be justified if they involve the saving of human lives”. The Committee recalls that paragraph 23 of the abovementioned general observation, which refers to the 1990 recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), establishes a dose limit of 0.5 Sv, and it therefore invites the Government to bring the dose limits established for emergency interventions into line with those established in the recommendations of the ICRP. It also requests the Government to indicate the measures adopted or envisaged to make protection against accidents and during emergency operations as effective as possible, in particular with regard to the design and protective features of the workplace and equipment, and the development of emergency intervention techniques, the use of which in emergency situations would enable the exposure of individuals to ionizing radiations to be avoided.