A COMPANY which exposed three of its employees to ionising radiation was today fined £10,000 by Selby magistrates.

The court heard that the employees were involved in radiography work at the premises of OIS plc on the Maltings industrial estate at Whitley Bridge, near Selby.

The staff were helping to take photographs of steel castings, using a sealed radiation source to detect any defects.

Dr David Shallow, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said the equipment emitting the potentially-deadly radiation had not been fully retracted and must have been exposed - but it was not discovered until one of the employees spotted something unusual on one of the photographs.

As a result, radiographer Philip Dawson received an estimated body dose of 57 millisieverts of radiation during the 35 minutes he was inside the lead-lined enclosure.

Mr Shallow said doses should never exceed more than 50 millisieverts a year.

Two other employees, Keith Fell and Ralph Winter, received doses of two millisieverts of radiation.

Mr Shallow said the alarm in the enclosure did not sound and the red lights did not flash because of an electrical fault.

He said that when Mr Dawson took a hand-held dust monitor to the entrance of the enclosure, the meter went "off scale."

He said doses of ionising radiation were highly dangerous with high levels of doses resulting in tissue burns and possibly death. Lower doses could have long-term illness effects and could cause cancer.

Peter Atkinson, mitigating, said Mr Dawson failed to fully retract the radiation source, and none of the three staff were carrying hand-held monitors, despite it being company policy.

He said there was a design fault with the alarm system, which was now being tested on a daily basis, and the company had put in place new measures to prevent any further incidents.

Mr Atkinson said all three staff suffered no injury as a result of the incident.

The company admitted failing to take all necessary steps to restrict the extent to which employees were exposed to ionising radiation, and failing to supervise company rules.

Senior magistrate Maurice Patrick said it was a "serious lapse" in safety procedures.