Company handed six-figure fine after workers exposed to excessive level of radiation in Leeds

On March 25 in 2019, two members of staff at Alliance Medical Limited were contaminated with skin doses in excess of the annual dose limit after a vial of a radioactive substance leaked at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds.

The same radioactive substance was unknowingly handled at the Alliance Medical Radiopharmacy Limited facility at Keele University Science Park in November 15 of the same year, leading to a staff member being contaminated with an excessive skin dose.

In both incidents, the doses were in excess of the limit as defined by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017.

Alliance Medical Limited were fined £300,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, regulations 12, 18(3), 18(4) and 18(5)a, and they were also ordered to pay costs of £11,382 at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on September 29 2022.

In the same court and on the same date, the company’s radiopharmaceutical subsidiary company, Alliance Medical Radiopharmacy Limited, pleaded guilty to breaches of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, regulations 9(2)a, 11(1) and 12, and were fined £120,000.

The subsidiary company was also ordered to pay costs of £11,382.

Health and Safety Executive [HSE] specialist inspector Elizabeth Reeves said: “The workers in both these incidents were exposed to levels of radiation which could potentially impact on their health in the future.

“Employers in the nuclear medicine sector must properly assess the risks to their employees and others and ensure all radiation doses are as low as reasonably practicable.

“Both these incidents could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out the correct control measures and ensuring safe working practices were followed. Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement actions against those that fall below the required standards.”

A HSE investigation into the incident at the positron emission tomography-computed tomography [PET-CT] facility in Leeds found that training and instruction was inadequate and that supervision was below an acceptable standard.

HSE have said staff were not made fully aware of localised instructions and that the personal protective equipment [PPE] they were using was unsuitable for work with radioactive material.