External Medical Surveillance

Health surveillance

Our medical staff carefully monitors the health status of nearly 2600 employees of several organisations:

• SCK•CEN
• Belgoprocess
• Belgonucleaire
• VITO
• The European School
• All external contractors working in the controlled areas of the nuclear establishments in the Mol-Dessel region

2 occupational physicians, 1 clinical laboratory technician and 3 paramedics are working on a daily basis in close collaboration with the respective internal safety and health physics departments. All professional exposures, including radiation doses are kept far below legal limits.

Decontamination

Due to a prevention policy, acute health effects can easily be averted and accident rates are very low. In spite of this, an ultra modern infrastructure is at our disposal in case of any (contamination) accident.

Radiation epidemiology project

To study the adequacy of extrapolation models used to set current exposure limits in radiation protection, epidemiological studies of populations with long-term exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation are needed.

For this purpose, in close collaboration with the Environment, Health and Safety Institute, the Medical Department of SCK•CEN coordinates the Belgian part of the international multicentre programme managed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO-Lyon). SCK•CEN, Belgonucleaire, Belgoprocess and Electrabel (nuclear power plants of Doel and Tihange) participate in this project.

Research topics

• Cancer mortality among workers in the nuclear sector in Belgium
• Cancer mortality in the vicinity of the nuclear site of Mol-Dessel (Belgium)
• International employee study IARC/WHO

Head of Expert Group: Holmstock Luc