The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) yesterday announced plans to lower the minimum level of radiation exposure for former residents of radioactive buildings to receive free medical examinations, a measure that is expected to benefit an additional 3,000 people.
The council plans to lower the requirement from 5 millisieverts to 1 millisievert a year, it said at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee to review the council’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
Lawmakers said that current requirements are too high compared with international standards, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Kun-yuh (吳焜裕) citing the International Commission on Radiological Protection, which has lowered the annual dose limit for individuals from 5 millisieverts to 1 millisievert.
For buildings, the commission has set a limit of 1 millisievert, Wu added.
Although it has been more than 20 years, people who had lived in these houses still need medical care, Wu said.
Wu was referring to the discovery in the 1990s that more than 180 buildings housing more than 1,600 apartments that were built between 1982 and 1984 contained radioactive steel.
Wu and other lawmakers called on the council to review current regulations and propose a plan within six months.
The council said it would complete the legal procedures for the regulatory change within a year and begin providing free medical examinations to people who have been exposed to more than 1 millisievert of radiation a year by 2019 at the earliest.
In 1999, the council began providing free medical examinations and disease prevention services to residents of buildings exposed to more than 5 millisieverts of radiation a year.
In 2013, the Taipei City Government became the first to pass a self-government ordinance allowing residents exposed to more than 1 millisievert of radiation per year to receive free medical examinations and consolation money.
The council said it spends a total of about NT$6.7 million (US$223,281), or NT$9,000 per person, per year on medical examinations and other fees for people exposed to 5 millisieverts of radiation.
About 3,000 people in Taiwan have been exposed to radiation levels of between 1 and 5 millisieverts a year, it said.
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