No more lead aprons?
If you have ever went into radiology when your care recipient is getting x-rays, then I am sure you have experienced the weight of those damn lead aprons that they make you wear. Well, I guess you could refuse, but it's not a very good idea.
I went in to get some tests done on my dad the other day and the radiologist handed me the dreaded lead apron and I slipped into it and realized it was not that heavy. I did not pay a lot of attention to the black apron with colorful paint-like splatters across it until my dad had a twenty minute wait between x-rays, then I got to looking at the thing and found the tag on it saying that it was an Infab GreenLite lead free apron for x-rays. Say what? Lead free? No wonder it was not so heavy. I had always assumed that lead was the only thing you could use for protection from the x-rays so this intrigued me.
Here's what I found...
In 1989 Infab Corporation introduced what it called HX-70, a lightweight material that was met by skepticism in the radiology community. In June 2003 they released "Green Lite", the first apron that has a barrier material that has absolutely no lead content and is more than 42% lighter than an all lead apron. And the Green Lite still provides a full .50mm Pb equivalent protection level.
I went in to get some tests done on my dad the other day and the radiologist handed me the dreaded lead apron and I slipped into it and realized it was not that heavy. I did not pay a lot of attention to the black apron with colorful paint-like splatters across it until my dad had a twenty minute wait between x-rays, then I got to looking at the thing and found the tag on it saying that it was an Infab GreenLite lead free apron for x-rays. Say what? Lead free? No wonder it was not so heavy. I had always assumed that lead was the only thing you could use for protection from the x-rays so this intrigued me.
Here's what I found...
In 1989 Infab Corporation introduced what it called HX-70, a lightweight material that was met by skepticism in the radiology community. In June 2003 they released "Green Lite", the first apron that has a barrier material that has absolutely no lead content and is more than 42% lighter than an all lead apron. And the Green Lite still provides a full .50mm Pb equivalent protection level.
posted by Sandra at 2:39 PM
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