Gammasonics Institute for Medical Research

Sustainability Award Winner 2007
Green Business Award

On Monday 12 November 2007 the Canada Bay Council presented Professor Carl Munoz-Ferrada founder of Gammasonics with first prize in the 2007 Sustainability Award in the category of 'Green Business'.

The Sustainability Awards, incorporating the previously named Environmental Citizen Awards, reward local businesses, communities and individuals that demonstrate outstanding leadership, inter-relatedness of social, cultural, economic and environmental factors and contribute to a more sustainable future for the area.

Gammasonics work is not obvious to many, but is essential and is a backbone to the protection and presevation of our environment.

For example; if we were to put together all the radiation giving apparatuses (like Dental CT, general X-Rays, OPG’s, Mammography, C-ARM to mention a few) that is utilised in the medical field to perform cancer studies within Australia, the radiation dose alone in 1 year would be equal to a small nuclear detonation, therefore its important to monitor, measure and control. One area of Gammasonics business is to maintain these levels of control with Australian and International regulations.

The number of Nuclear Medicine departments in Australia discharging radio isotope affluence into waterways is high. Without Gammasonics monitoring and controlling the consequences would be catastrophic to the environment, with fauna and flora creating mutations and problems that are hard to determine today what implications this will bring to our DNA, effecting all living organisms in future generations.

The number of technologies developed at Gammasonics to monitor and measure air, sea and terra are too many to mention. The new Becquerel Monitor which is exported out of Australia is one technology that has called attention to the world. Specifically designed to monitor the possibilities of contaminated water table by nuclear plants, research reactors and is utilised as laboratory equipment for analysis of food, grown in areas possibly contaminated by heavy metals, natural accruing radiation or deliberate environmental damage.

Gammasonics were also highly commended for the opening of their new medical centre, Canada Bay Medical Centre for Excellence. This is yet another area in medical business with an environmental approach to medicine, more specifically, to reduce the number of excess OPG’s and X-Ray patients being referred in dental modalities. With the introduction of Dental CT we reduce the dose dramatically to the patient and create a more precise diagnostic medicine to the population of Australia.