Monte Carlo simulation of the dose to nuclear medicine staff wearing protective garments
Date
2008
Authors
Fog, Lotte Stubjaer
Collins, Petri Joanne
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Journal Title
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Journal article
Citation
Australasian Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine, 2008; 31 (4):307-316
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L. S. Fog and P. Collins
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Abstract
The literature contains both endorsements of, and advice against, the use of protective apparel in nuclear medicine
procedures. The main issues usually centre around: Whether the shielding which can be provided by a protective garment
light enough to wear (0 to 0.6 mm lead equivalent at the gamma energies commonly encountered in nuclear medicine) is
enough to warrant its use; and (more recently); Whether the dose enhancement behind the protective garment from
electron scatter in lead is sufficient to be of concern. In this work, the Monte Carlo code EGSnrc was used to investigate
the effectiveness of lead of thicknesses of 0 to 0.6 mm, in shielding staff from photons of energies of 140 and 511 keV.
Furthermore, dose escalation behind the lead was investigated. Reasonable dose reductions are obtained at 140 keV with
protective garments of 0.5 mm lead equivalence. This perhaps warrants their use, in certain circumstances. At 511 keV,
the reduction in dose is less than 10%, and their use is probably not justified (given the weight that has to be carried) from
an ALARA point of view. It should be noted here that protective garments designed for X-ray shielding will generally not
have the same lead equivalence at the gamma energies used in nuclear medicine. It should also be noted that protective
garments which do not contain lead do not always attenuate as much as their stated lead equivalence claims. Dose
escalation does occur, but the depth of penetration of the scattered electrons beyond the exit side of the lead shielding is
such that it is highly unlikely that a significant dose would be delivered to viable tissue in wearers of protective garments.
School/Discipline
School of Chemistry and Physics
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Copyright © 2008 ACPSEM