e-Licensing for Radiation Applications

eLORA (e-Licensing for Radiation Applications), an e-Governance initiative by AERB, is a web-based application for automation of regulatory processes for various Radiation Facilities in India. The objective of the project is to enhance efficiency and transparency in the regulatory processes of AERB. The system is aimed at achieving paperless licensing of Radiation Facilities.
https://elora.aerb.gov.in/ELORA

ABOUT ADITHISRI RADIATION SERVICES

Adithisri Radiation Services (ADITHISRI) is established in India to offer one stop solution for all Radiation related services like Quality Assurance, Regulatory Registration and Licensing Documentation Services, Calibration Services, Cell Tower Radiation, Radiation Survey, Radiation Leakage Tests, Radiation Shielding Calculations, Room Layout Reviews, TLD Reader and Badge Manufacturing, and Radiation Safety & Training.

ADITHISRI at a glance:

• Accredited by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Govt. of India to offer Quality Compliance and Quality Assurance Testing of Medical Diagnostic X-Ray Installations, one of the only four companies in India that are allowed to offer radiation related services;
• Offer Quality Assurance of radiation installations and radiation services for personnel to all the leading hospitals, Industries and diagnostic centers across India;
• Offers Radiological calibration services for a wide range of meters and chambers using in Industrial, Medical and Nuclear Power Plants in India.
• Successfully offered Quality Assurance services in a record time to nearly 800+ diagnostics equipments available in the hospitals, diagnostic centers and clinics of the southern and western parts of India;
• Our Radiation Safety Officers (RSOs) are trained and certified by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Department of Atomic Energy, India;
• Offers Quality Assurance services only using the world renowned and latest equipments from PTW Germany and Gammex USA;
• Compliant with the standards of International Organizations and Regulators like International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), World Health Organization (WHO), PTW Germany and Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR);
• The only company in India to lease a non-functional aircraft to offer radiation safety & protection training to CISF, cargo shipping companies, pilots, custom officers and security personnel;

What are AERB's plans for the coming year?

Operation of e-LORA would be a big milestone for regulation of medical X-ray practice and other applications of radiation sources like nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, industrial radiography, radiation processing facilities etc. However, few major action plans of AERB which are under implementation are summarized below:

Steps are being taken to decentralise the process though formation of state-level Directorate of Radiation Safety (DRS). The Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Kerala, has already set up Directorate of Radiation Safety) in 1996. The process of formation of DRS is underway in Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Karnataka. AERB is following up with other States to set up similar DRSs.

AERB has established RRCs in the country to further strengthen the regulatory control over radiation sources including medical X-ray installations. RRCs have already been established at Chennai and Kolkata. One is planned in the northern region. DRS and RRCs are expected to cover the medical X-ray facilities of respective regions for getting X-ray units registered and contribute in increasing regulatory inspections.

The regulatory inspections, i.e., radiation safety audits of the medical X-ray installations are the most important part of the compliance assurance programme (CAP) of AERB. AERB conducts, under the relevant provisions of regulations, the periodic inspections on sample basis, of medical X-ray facilities

The Radiological Safety Officer (RSO) is responsible for maintaining periodic QA records of medical X-ray equipment. AERB is in the process of accrediting independent QA service providers, besides manufacturers/suppliers of X-ray equipment, to ensure satisfactory performance and radiation safety of X-ray equipment.

How Much Radiation do I get from Dental X-Ray ?

We Are Giving Ourselves CANCER

DESPITE great strides in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States. Increasingly, we and many other experts believe that an important culprit may be our own medical practices: We are silently irradiating ourselves to death. The use of medical imaging with high-dose radiation — CT scans in particular — has soared in the last 20 years. Our resulting exposure to medical radiation has increased more than sixfold between the 1980s and 2006, according to the National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements. The radiation doses of CT scans (a series of X-ray images from multiple angles) are 100 to 1,000 times higher than conventional X-rays. Of course, early diagnosis thanks to medical imaging can be lifesaving. But there is distressingly little evidence of better health outcomes associated with the current high rate of scans. There is, however, evidence of its harms. The relationship between radiation and the development of cancer is well understood: A single CT scan exposes a patient to the amount of radiation that epidemiologic evidence shows can be cancer-causing. The risks have been demonstrated directly in two large clinical studies in Britain and Australia. In the British study, children exposed to multiple CT scans were found to be three times more likely to develop leukemia and brain cancer. In a 2011 report sponsored by Susan G. Komen, the Institute of Medicine concluded that radiation from medical imaging, and hormone therapy, the use of which has substantially declined in the last decade, were the leading environmental causes of breast cancer, and advised that women reduce their exposure to unnecessary CT scans. CTs, once rare, are now routine. 

One in 10 Americans undergo a CT scan every year, and many of them get more than one. This growth is a result of multiple factors, including a desire for early diagnoses, higher quality imaging technology, direct-to-consumer advertising and the financial interests of doctors and imaging centers. CT scanners cost millions of dollars; having made that investment, purchasers are strongly incentivized to use them. While it is difficult to know how many cancers will result from medical imaging, a 2009 study from the National Cancer Institute estimates that CT scans conducted in 2007 will cause a projected 29,000 excess cancer cases and 14,500 excess deaths over the lifetime of those exposed. Given the many scans performed over the last several years, a reasonable estimate of excess lifetime cancers would be in the hundreds of thousands. According to our calculations, unless we change our current practices, 3 percent to 5 percent of all future cancers may result from exposure to medical imaging. We know that these tests are overused. But even when they are appropriately used, they are not always done in the safest ways possible. The rule is that doses for medical imaging should be as low as reasonably achievable. But there are no specific guidelines for what these doses are, and thus there is considerable variation within and between institutions. The dose at one hospital can be as much as 50 times stronger than at another.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USERS OF TLD BADGES

BARC Transferred Auto TLD Badge Reader Technology

PC based automatic TLD badge reader (Auto-TLD BR) has been developed to ensure health and safety of persons working in radiation environment, to monitor the radiation dose received by them and maintain a record. A PC based auto TLD badge reader can process up to 50 TLD badges loaded in a magazine at a time. The readout time is typically 100 sec. per badge and 50 badges are read in about 90 minutes Photograph after signing the agreement with M/s Adithisri Radiation Services, Tirupati, seen from left to right Smt. S. S. Murudkar, TT&CD, Dr. M. S. Kulkarni, RP&AD, Shri. D. A. R. Babu, Head RP&AD, Dr. D. N. Sharma, Director, HS&EG, Shri Rajesh Bapu.S, M/s Adithisri, Dr. S. P. Kale, Head, TT&CD, Shri. B.K. Pathak, TT&CD, Smt. Ratna Pradeep, RP&AD, Shri R.N. Khanderao, RP&AD

http://www.barc.gov.in/publications/nl/2013/2013091015.pdf