Radiology apron lead

[Bo1]

Anyone ever try to recover the lead from radiology aprons?

Just got about 500 lbs of aprons from the hospital I work at. I weighed 1 apron after cutting off the material, and just had the multiple sheets of lead and end sems left. It weighed 7 lbs.

The only problem is each thin layer of lead is rubber(?) coated.

Any suggestions on recovering the lead? It seems like it is going to be a big mess.
Thanks,
Bo

[kbstenberg]

I salvaged an apron from my dentist. I took off the outer and inner material and melted what was left. As you guessed there was a lot of smoke and skimming. But the lead came out OK. Kevin

[Bo1]

Kevin,
Would you do it to about 100 of them?
Wondering if I melted some good lead first and just dropped the inner material a little at a time might work better.

[sqlbullet]

I think you will spend more on your heat source than the value of the lead you recover, not to mention the toxic vapors. I just chuck the ones I get.

If you work in a hospital, skip the x-ray department and get with the pharmacy. Ask about technicium-99m generators, or xenon vials, or idodine pigs. Even if they don't deal with radio-active medicine locally, they should be able to tell you where they are getting these items and you could call them.

[Bill*]

Is it simply rubber coated sheets of lead for sure? I understood they were made of a rubberlike mat'l which was infused with lead dust, which would be darn near impossible to refine back out.

[Bo1]

I have melted a small amount of one of the sheets, and it does smoke ALOT, but there was lead at the bottom of the test bowl after heating.