Why should one wear protective clothing, thyroid collars, gloves and glasses?

Some diagnostic x-ray equipment (for example fluoroscopy) is capable of delivering radiation doses that may be high enough to produce cellular reactions, which will be manifested as acute radiation reaction or injury. In properly conducted diagnostic x-ray examinations however, these acute radiation effects do not occur because the radiation doses are well below the threshold for such effects. Nevertheless, there may be no lower limit of dose for the limitation of some deleterious biological changes. Even small doses of radiation may increase the risk of development of neoplasia and small doses of radiation absorbed, in the gonads may induce mutations or chromosomal changes leading to hereditary effects. The ICRP introduced the term stochastic, i.e. only the probability of occurrence of the effect depends on the dose of radiation absorbed, whereas the severity of the effect is independent of dose. Cancer induction and heritable effects are the principal stochastic effects of ...  more