title: PROMOTING FLUOROSCOPIC PERSONAL RADIATION PROTECTION EQUIPMENT: UNFAMILIARITY, FACTS AND FEARS.
abstract: An incomplete understanding of risk can cause inappropriate fear. Personal protective equipment (PPE) offered for the prevention of brain cancer in interventional fluoroscopists (IR-PPE). Similar items are offered for cell-phone use (RF-PPE). Publications on fluoroscopy staff brain cancer and similar papers on cell-phone induced brain cancer were reviewed. An internet safety product search was performed, which resulted in many tens of thousands of hits. Vendor claims for either ionizing radiation or radio frequency products seldom addressed the magnitude of the risk. Individuals and institutions can buy a wide variety of safety goods. Any purchase of radioprotective equipment reduces the funds available to mitigate other safety risks. The estimated cost of averting an actuarial fatal brain cancer appears to be in the order of magnitude $10 000 000-$100 000 000. Unwarranted radiation fears should not drive the radiation protection system to the point of decreasing overall safety.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balter
mesh_terms: D005239:Fear; D005471:Fluoroscopy; D006801:Humans; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D012306:Risk