Workplace designer, Cannon Davis, has created a radiotherapy suite at a facility in London’s Harley Street without using lead-lined boards by installing Safeboard, a Knauf X-ray shielding plasterboard.
The suite, six consulting rooms, and two operating theatres, forms The Whiteley Clinic, which specialises in treating varicose veins.
There were ‘strong reasons’ to seek an alternative to lead, explains Jeremy Hopkins of Cannon Davis Commercial Interiors, which masterminded the conversion of previous ‘Grade A’ office space. “We needed a light material so there would be no additional weight that would require any structural alterations,” he said. “Using lead-lined components would have entailed using specialist contractors and fixings. There would also have been wet trades laying concrete blocks, which would have been disruptive, inflexible, and time-consuming.”
Knauf Safeboard ‘brings together X-ray protection and fire and acoustic performance in one easy-to-install board’ thanks to its key ingredient – barium sulphate – a radio contrasting agent that can create a barrier for radiowaves of specific bandwidths. Knauf explains: “In a barium meal, the X-rays hit the barium, and the image silhouettes the specific area of interest. In Safeboard the distinctive yellow core is filled with enough of this material to effectively block X-rays across its entire area.”
Safeboard was used to construct the walls, ceiling, and floor. To form the flooring, the existing galvanised raised floor was stripped out and replaced with Safeboard ‘sandwiched’ between two layers of plywood, and then surfaced with a non-slip vinyl floorcovering. The new facility has been fully tested by a Radiation Protection Adviser.
