• Question: is there any protective clothing that you wear when you are in a place with high radiation?

    Asked by ~ha.n.n.ah~ to Kate on 9 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by jasmine.
    • Photo: Kate Wright

      Kate Wright answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      It really depends on how much contamination there is – if there could be radioactive atoms floating around in the air then people have to wear a full PVC suit and a respirator (imagine someone in a bio-hazard suit and a gas mask, it looks a lot like that). Fortunately I mostly work in an office and when I am in radioactive areas I don’t have to wear any special clothes because there’s no contamination – all the radioactive stuff is sealed away in containers so it’s OK to just wear normal clothes.

      Sadly there are no clothes that can actually protect you from radiation – some types of radiation can go right through clothes and the only thing that will stop it is a few inches of lead (which is way too heavy to wear) or a few metres of concrete (I’ve never tried wearing concrete but I’m guessing it wouldn’t be much fun).

      Thanks for your question!

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