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Characterization and Verification of Lead Thickness of Commercially Available Lead Foil Tape for the Measurements of Lead Equivalency of Protective Apparatus

P Lin*, R Wargo , A Aljabal , Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond, VA

Presentations

(Tuesday, 7/16/2019) 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Room: Exhibit Hall | Forum 8

Purpose: To determine and verify whether a commercially available lead foil tape designed for industrial utility applications, with nominal lead thickness of 4 mils (~0.1 mm), may be employed as truly 0.1 mm thick lead.

Methods: Lead protective apparatus is normally specified in “x� mm of lead equivalent, typically below 0.5 mmPb (lead eyeglasses may be ~0.75 mmPb). Upon discovery of commercially available lead foil tape, manufactured by 3M™ (Lead Foil Tape 421), designed for industrial utility applications with nominal lead thickness of 4 mils (~0.1 mm), we set out to determine if this Lead Foil Tape can indeed be used as the reference lead thickness in the evaluation of lead equivalency of various protective apparatus. The lead foil tape is cut to appropriate size (50 mm X 50 mm) and stacked to vary the total lead thickness for transmission measurements.In addition to following the geometry spelled out in ASTM Designation F3094-14 standards, radiation beam qualities corresponding to modern cardiovascular angiography equipment in the range of 60 to 120 kVp in 10 kVp increments and spectral shaping filters of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mmCu were employed for characterization of the lead foil tape. The transmission data of lead pieces with known thicknesses (1/32�, 1/16� and 3/32�) were superimposed on the lead foil tape transmission curves to validate the 0.1 mm thickness

Results: The transmission data points (through three known lead thicknesses) and various radiation beam qualities mentioned above, fall right on the transmission curves of 3Mâ„¢ (Lead Foil Tape 421) with better than 2% accuracy. Therefore, it is indeed behaving like 0.1 mm thick lead based on the superimposed transmission curves.

Conclusion: Lead Foil Tape investigated may be and is being employed as the reference lead for evaluation of lead protective apparatus at this institution.

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