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Re: Lead Glasses

Please tell us that you're joking.  You make the most penurious HMO seem like
Santa Claus.  Also, your calculations don't account for a potential mishap, where
the glasses may save his sight.

In addition, being "safety equipment," there may be laws which require the
employer to pay for it.

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com

Chris Alston wrote:

> >Reply-To: "Montagnese, Anthony D" <ADMontag@LHA.ORG>
> >
> >I could use some advice.  My radiobiology days are so far behind me now!  I
> >have a Cardiologist who wants his department to pay for replacement of his
> >broken leaded eyeglasses.  My position since coming here several years ago
> >is that the radiation doses that these doctors are receving, although higher
> >than most other areas, are insufficient to justify a reasonable cataract
> >concern.  This is based on my age-old understanding that radiation
> >cataractogenesis is a nonstochastic event, and that the lens retains some
> >repair ability from minor damage throughout most adult life.  Thus, unless a
> >cardiologist received greater than about 200 rads to the lens in a single
> >event (Merriam, Szechter, and Focht, "The Effect of Ionizing Radiations on
> >the Eye, in Radiation Therapy and Oncology, Vol. 6, 1972, pp. 346 - 385),
> >there is not concern.  His cumulative dose comes at such a low rate -
> >millirads per month - that this is also not a concern. My position, then,
> >has been to not discourage leaded glasses, per se, but also to not endorse
> >them - a matter of diminishing returns, I guess.
> >
> >I suppose I should add that I recognize that most regulatory agencies have a
> >lens dose limit of 15 rems (0.15 Sv) per year.  Taking their collar badges
> >as a reasonable estimator of this, the cardiologists are nowhere near such a
> >dose.
> >
> >Am I way off-base on this?  Can anyone cite a reasonable reference to
> >support or refute me?
> >
> >Anthony D. Montagnese, MS, DABR
> >Lancaster General Hospital
> >Lancaster, Pennsylvania  USA
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