Investigation of the effect of using radiation protective glasses on the photon fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients of eye substructures

Abstract

The use of radiation protective glasses is common in radiation-contaminated environments. However, the effect of these glasses has not yet been investigated on the fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients (DCCs). The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of five types of gamma ray protective glasses on the photon fluence-to-DCCs of different eye substructures. For this purpose, a real eye model has been used and its conversion coefficients have been calculated in the presence of five types eye protective glasses with chemical formulae of ZnO–PbO–B2O3, Bi2O3–PbO–B2O3, PbO–B2O3, PbO–BaO–Na2O–MgO–B2O3 and BaO–Nb2O3–P2O5. Calculations were performed for monoenergetic photon sources, whose energy ranges from 0.02 to 10 MeV, with different polar and azimuthal angles. The results indicate that the use of radiation protective glasses has acceptable effects on reducing the fluence-to-DCCs only at low photon energies up to 500 keV. At medium energy levels up to about 1 MeV, the effect of the glasses is negligible. However, at high energies it increases the fluence-to-DCCs for sensitive parts of the eye.