Citation

Romanyukha A, Trompier F, Benevides LA. Health Phys. 2016; 111(2): 127-133.

Affiliation

*Naval Dosimetry Center, 8950 Brown Drive, Bethesda, MD 20889-5614; † Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France; ‡ 2cmE Consultants LLC, 111 Linden Hall Lane, Gaithersburg, MD.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Health Physics Society, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/HP.0000000000000482

PMID

27356056

Abstract

Today the armed forces and law enforcement personnel wear body armor, helmets, and flak jackets composed substantially of Kevlar® fiber to prevent bodily injury or death resulting from physical, ballistic, stab, and slash attacks. Therefore, there is a high probability that during a radiation accident or its aftermath, the Kevlar®-composed body armor will be irradiated. Preliminary study with samples of Kevlar® foundation fabric obtained from body armor used by the U.S. Marine Corps has shown that all samples evaluated demonstrated an EPR signal, and this signal increased with radiation dose. Based on these results, the authors predict that, with individual calibration, exposure at dose above 1 Gy can be reliably detected in Kevlar® samples obtained from body armor. As a result of these measurements, a post-event reconstruction of exposure dose can be obtained by taking various samples throughout the armor body and helmet worn by the same irradiated individual. The doses can be used to create a whole-body dose map that would be of vital importance in a case of a partial body or heterogeneous exposure.

Language: en