In the past 10 years, the IAEA has provided bilateral legislative assistance to 82 countries for adopting or revising the nuclear laws of these countries, out of which 29 have completed the process, and many others are in the final stages of doing so. In Jamaica, for example, the IAEA has been providing legal support since 2011.
“We need the right laws in place, first of all, to maintain and enforce the standards of safety and, second of all, to minimize the risk to workers, patients, and the environment,” said Erica Boswell-Munroe, former Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel of Jamaica.
In March 2013, responding to a request from the Minister of Health of Jamaica, the IAEA sent a team of cancer control experts to conduct an in-depth assessment of the country’s cancer control capacity and needs. The results of this mission, known as an imPACT Review, are supporting national efforts to develop a comprehensive national cancer control programme that includes laws and regulations.
Further developing a national cancer control programme is the aim of Jamaica’s Ministry of Health. “We see the need to expand our cancer care services, as much as we see the need to finalize the laws and regulations that come with it,” Boswell-Munroe said. “On more than one occasion, we were unable to import radiation sources because we didn’t have the law in place and, therefore, were not able to grant the necessary authorizations.”
In 2015, Jamaica passed the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act with the IAEA’s support. The Act, among other things, sets out to protect people from exposure to ionizing radiation and monitor facilities using ionizing radiation and nuclear technology, as well as to facilitate Jamaica’s compliance with international obligations.
The Act calls for the establishment of a national regulatory body to grant authorizations and establish operational standards, as well as to regulate and monitor activities, practices and facilities that make use of ionizing radiation and nuclear technology.
Jamaica is currently upgrading its Nuclear Medicine Centre at the University Hospital of the West Indies with the help of the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme. Planned to be completed by 2021, the Centre is expected to become the country’s only public nuclear medicine facility.
This article was also featured in the IAEA Bulletin on Cancer Control published in September 2019.
