Background

Various studies have highlighted issues regarding the prevalence of back pain due to lead apron use. The health and safety executive guidelines on personal protection equipment state that an employee should be able to carry the weight of a lead apron without injury (HSE, 2017). It has been suggested that wearing a 15 pound lead apron can place pressures of up to 300 pounds per square inch of the intervertebral discs (Khalil, 1993), ‘interventionalist's disc disease’ has been identified as a confirmed entity (Ross et al. 1997).