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Are you wondering what to wear to protect from radiation exposure? If you’re managing a medical or research facility, there may be equipment on your premises that emits a significant amount of ionizing radiation.
This can produce long-term health issues, so it’s essential to know what to wear to protect against radiation in these settings.
In this article, we’ll discuss some of the basic pieces of radiation safety equipment that should be present in all medical, diagnostic, and research facilities.
Head, Neck and Thyroid Protection
If you’re wondering “what can you wear to protect yourself from radiation?” It’s important to think about the impact of ionizing energy to different parts of the body. For instance, when radiation passes through a leg or another limb, it doesn’t produce as much long-term damage.
That said, when radiation passes through vital organs located in your head and core, it can produce lasting effects and long-term health complications.
Fortunately, you can protect against direct and scatter radiation by wearing different types of safety equipment. Let’s take a look at some of the gear you can use to protect your head.
Band/Head Cap
Leaded bands and head caps can reflect direct and scatter radiation before it hits the head, reducing the amount of damage to the brain.
Leaded Eyewear
When it comes to your eyes, what can you wear to protect them from radiation? The answer to this is simple: leaded eyewear can be made to specific prescriptions so that your staff can perform their professional duties in a safe environment in every sense of the word.
Thyroid Shielding
Radiation is particularly damaging to the thyroid gland. Fortunately, you can provide thyroid shields that are designed to minimize the amount of radiation that actually affects this part of the body.
Shielding Your Core and Vital Organs
The liver, lungs, stomach, intestines, kidneys, and other vital organs are all located in the core area, so what do you wear to protect yourself from radiation and its effect on this part of the body?
Leaded Aprons
Leaded aprons are the golden standard when it comes to protecting vital organs located in the core. From full neck-length models to aprons that only cover the front torso, there are dozens of different formats and attenuation power that you can choose depending on your application.
Half Aprons and Skirts
Half aprons and leaded skirts are the perfect addition to your safety equipment as they help protect the groin and lower extremities from ionizing radiation.
How to Select the Right Protective Gear
Now that we’ve covered some of the fundamental safety accessories you should have in your facility, let’s go over a few tips to help you purchase the best radiation protection gear.
For starters, it’s important to find a manufacturer that has an extensive track record of success and is backed by years in the industry. Acquiring lead aprons and other protective gear directly from the manufacturer or suggested distributors is best because it creates a direct line between you and the company that makes these products.
Take Barrier Technologies for example. Besides working directly with our clients to ensure that their industry safety standards are met or exceeded, we can also personalize their products and provide alternatives based on their requirements, like lead-free radiation protection.
In addition to this, you should also:
Observe the Activity in Your Facility
The activity in your facility refers to the types of treatments or processes that utilize radiation in your premises.
This is important because the radiation exposure generated by every machine is different, so you have to understand how much energy is emitted in your facility and who may be exposed to it in order to get the best equipment.
As a general rule of thumb, machinery found in dental clinics tends to generate the lowest amount of exposure, while hospitals and laboratory settings may have equipment that produces a significant amount of radiation.
Assess the Number of Radiation Specialists
Besides the equipment in your facility, it’s also necessary to assess the number of radiation experts within your facility. While sharing protective gear is effective in small-scale settings, you’ll need to order enough PPE for all of your radiation experts to be operational at once, but only if your facility may require this at some point.
If you’re running dental clinics and medical facilities, you should also take into consideration the number of patients that may be exposed to radiation and acquire PPE to protect them as well.
Bring in Your Radiation Officer
Your radiation officer is the individual in charge of creating and implementing a safety protocol to help protect everyone in your premises.
It’s essential that you consult with your radiation officer beyond getting suggestions for the type of PPE. As a matter of fact, our radiation experts prefer bringing in the radiation officer before we start providing aprons and other safety accessories to a new facility to ensure that the PPE we’re providing is suitable for the application.
Find a Manufacturer that Guides You Through the Process
Radiation protection technology advances quickly, especially if you need to get lightweight protective gear for medical experts and laboratory teams that need protection for several hours in a row.
The good news is that you don’t have to become your facility’s radiation protection expert – our team already has complete mastery over the materials and accessories that can help keep your team safe.
Get the Best Protective Gear for Your Facility
Whether you’re managing dental offices, various medical centers, research labs, or similar facilities, providing the right type of protection to patients and radiation experts is essential.
The good news is that you have a wide range of lead safety accessories designed to protect the different parts of the body, including caps, eyewear, thyroid shields, aprons, skirts, gloves, and other protective gear.
It’s important to understand the amount of exposure and the potency of the radiation emitted by the devices in your facility in order to get the best protective gear. The good news is that you don’t have to take this on by yourself – at Barrier Technologies, we can help you and your radiation officer choose the best protective equipment for your team and patients.
Contact us today to learn more about the safety accessories you should have in your facility, our team of radiation protection experts will be glad to help.
