| abstract |
The hazards of exposure to heavy metal contamination, examples of which arsenic, beryllium, lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, zinc, mercury and barium, and the radioactive substances which deposit in human bone, examples of which are uranium, plutonium, and americium, are very serious and are well known to scientific and medical professionals. Since lead is a prevalent metal contaminant which deposits in human bone, and its effects are quite hazardous, especially to young children, the focus of this disclosure will be on methods of detecting lead exposure. While it is possible to detect the level of lead in the body through the use of a blood test, the relevancy of such tests is limited, since the risk to humans from lead exposure is related to the amount of lead deposited in the bones of the exposed person and not, necessarily, the amount in the blood. Moreover, drawing blood causes some discomfort on the part of the person being tested, which is especially difficult with small children, who are particularly at risk to lead exposure due to various environmental factors. Accordingly, an alternative method, the indirect measure of the level of cumulative lead exposure in the bones of a person by sue of x-ray fluorescence, is often employed. This invention relates generally to surrogate structures, or phantoms, that exhibit radiological properties of bone, muscle, and other soft tissue. Specifically, this invention relates to phantoms which have been designed to accurately exhibit anthropometric and radiological properties of human bone and soft tissue for use in calibrating the response of spectroscopic instruments that enable in vivo measurement of the levels of contamination from stable metals and radioactive material. |