Stewart Barbara: Radiation Safety Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStewart Barbara: Radiation Safety Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 03 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7644. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA STEWART (NZ First): On behalf of New Zealand First I am very pleased to rise in support of the Radiation Safety Bill. As other speakers have said this bill sets out to repeal and replace the 1965 Radiation Protection Act. We all know that society science and technological advances have come a long way since then—The Sound of Music was a long time ago. But the best news about this particular bill is that it will bring us into line with international best practice and the latest principles of radiation safety which is important.We support this bill because it brings dose limits for ionising radiation into line with the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. It is absolutely critical to balance the benefits of ionising radiation with the health and safety of people and our environment and we believe that this bill successfully does that. And of course this bill also helps New Zealand to meet its international radiation protection obligations.I must say I was very pleased to be the New Zealand First representative during the select committee process as we closely examined and refined the bill. Like others we must compliment the people from the Ministry of Health who ensured that we knew far more about the bill and ionising and non-ionising radiation as we went through the various stages in the bill. We received a lot of submissions and we heard from a number of people all of which only added to our understanding of some very technological issues. This was a very technical bill so we are very grateful to the people who took the time to comment on the bill because this ensured that the content of the bill was appropriate and practical.The bill focuses on providing a framework for the safe use of ionising radiation. We learnt that ionising radiation is irradiation that has enough energy to remove electrons from the orbit of an atom causing the atom to become charged or ionised.Scott Simpson: That’s right.BARBARA STEWART: I know. We did not know that before. We also know that ionising radiation can easily penetrate the body. We learnt too that if an atom in a cell’s DNA is ionised this can trigger chemical reactions that can damage our DNA and can lead to either death or mutation of the cell which can eventually lead to cancer. We want exposures kept as low as possible and we need to ensure that they are kept in line with right around the world. But we can reassure Kiwis that the dose limits of radiation that are listed in this bill are safe and people will not be harmed in any way from this.We also know that certain parts of the body are affected differently by radiation and of course we were very interested in it because of sunbeds which we had actually looked at previously and whether or not they should be banned for people under the age of 18. Being fair-skinned myself after hearing all of the evidence I was quite happy to go along with that. So for children and for young people the limits for ionising radiation need to be very different.We are pleased too that the security measures have been tightened up by making it a requirement that every person who deals with a radiation source must ensure that there are appropriate security measures in place. This will ensure that everyone takes responsibility for the security of the radiation source which is vital. A very important revision has been made to clause 22(4) allowing an unlicensed user to use a radiation source under the direct supervision or written instruction of an authorised person. We know that under current law use is permitted only under the direct supervision of an authorised person and the bill as it was presented stated quite categorically that no person could use a radiation source without a source licence. But in reality it is not possible for this to happen at all times.I was particularly interested in the case of dental therapists who take X-rays of children’s teeth. It is just not practical for a dentist to be at the dental clinic every time an X-ray is taken of children’s teeth so they cannot physically be there for every consultation. We believe that a better solution to this would be to allow dental therapists to be able to operate a licence under the Act for our children.We also believe that there are a couple of items that still need addressing in the bill. The current draft of the bill states that the Director of Radiation Safety “may require an applicant for a source licence to submit a radiation safety plan”. We are of the opinion that it should be mandatory for every organisation that applies for a source licence to submit the plan.We also fully support the need for a source register. This will allow better monitoring of what is happening in this particular area but we are very keen to hear how this register is actually going to be controlled to ensure that only authorised persons can access it. We note that the regulatory impact statement says that the Ministry of Health will be able to support the bill within “current departmental appropriations”. We are keen to ensure that appropriate resources are available to ensure that other services do not deteriorate as moneys are used to ensure that this register is kept up to date.So although clarity is required on some issues New Zealand First supports this bill. Thank you.