This site may contain useful info for TI's;

https://ncrponline.org/

Contains;

"There are two important exceptions to changing the practice of shielding. First, it still applies to providers. “Health care professionals who regularly use radiation, such as radiologic technologists or surgeons, have a higher rate of exposure day in and day out than a single patient undergoing an imaging study,” says Jennifer O’Riorden, director of health physics and radiation safety officer at Lahey Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. “These providers should continue to wear the appropriate protective apparel.”"

Which would seem to indicate shielding would be appropriate for TI's, for sure (if getting DEW).

"Interpretation
The 0.5 mm lead aprons blocked just over one third of the radiation scattered towards the surgeon."

= 1.5mm thick = blocks 100% of scattered radiation (?)

Important to note, this is scattered radiation (not directly aimed at the surgeon); never the less, radiation (and x-ray; the most destructive of radiation) absorption IS stopped by lead for sure ... And now we have some idea of what thickness works ... :)

And let us not forget, microwave is less powerful ;)

"Shielding is mainly achieved by wearing protective lead aprons of 0.25 or 0.5 mm thickness, which have been cited to attenuate over 90% and 99% of the radiation dose, respectively [7]. " :)

Ahah, the crucial line for TI's;

"All paired readings consistently showed only partial protection of the apron, far below the expectations of surgeons wearing them, or the 99% radiation blocking cited by Bushberg et al. [7] Jackson et al. assessed different types of aprons by direct exposure to radiation and found dose reductions of up to 88% compared with no apron [26]. However, they assessed the effect of aprons directly in the beam path,"

As TI's tend to get beamed directly; 88% reduction = no wonder so many TI's are finding benefits from using lead as a shielding material.

And no wonder Jay recommends the VEST rather than Apron (which stops of course, the BACKSCATTER radiation too! ;)

I'm convinced enough to buy the VEST ... And I hope you are too!

"demonstrated differences between different materials with a lead-equivalency of 0.5 mm, measuring transmission rates of 1–14% relative to beam strength [27]"

i.e. at 0.5mm lead equivalency we haz 86-99% reduction in radiation dose received ... relative to beam strength ...

Confirming in the conclusion;

"In this prospective study assessing the extent lead aprons protect surgeons from intraoperative X-ray radiation emitted by C-arms, the 0.5 mm aprons used provided very partial protection, blocking only 37.1% of the radiation scattered towards the surgeon."

All round protection is what is needed (even if you know the direction of beam coming at you) to protect you. If you don't use all round protection ... the backscatter radiation will get you.

Note, this is all about x-ray (ioniziing) radiation, but I am going to assume microwaves scatter too in my planning.

Final point on the above science;

"Competing interest statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest." :)

Further reading, for those inclined;

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?linkname=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=27441288

Remember this video of mine, showing me under EM pulse attack, which I now know caused the neuropathy (nerve damage) due to having had an ultrasound subsequently to diagnose?

See next, for what such pulses can do (just one) ..

Under attack again my end. :(