School fined after exposing staff & pupils to high levels of Radon gas

A school in Somerset has been fined £50,000 after exposing two employees, five pupils, and two other children to high levels of the radioactive gas, Radon. 

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the school knew they had a radon problem as far back as 2007 when they carried out monitoring and installed some remediation to reduce radon levels. However, from 2010 to 2018 the school carried out no subsequent radon monitoring and had no systems in place to ensure radon control measures were adequate.  

The school was fined for breaching Section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The Ionising Radiations Regulations2017 (IRR17) come into force when the annual average activity concentration of radon in the air exceeds 300 Bq/m3. 

Since the story broke on July 20 Evotech Air Quality’s team has been engaged by a number of schools wanting to undertake Radon testing. All our #CleanAirSchools have air quality monitors installed as part of our schools air quality initiative that detect Radon and provide both real-time and historic data that can be used to assess the risks from Radon gas.

Read the full article here