U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: an infant got x-rayed (was Re: Pablo Picasso's sculptures gotx-ray

Re: an infant got x-rayed (was Re: Pablo Picasso's sculptures gotx-rayed)



Okay, scanners @ airports. I'm afraid of them and have actually had film latensified, so to speak by them.
Both were high speed: TMax 400 and Fuji 1600 ISO color neg. Two years ago, flying to Italy, I sent ALL my
film via FedEx to Italy. The film I took with me was noticeably fogged. It might have been because I needed
to go through San Francisco x-rays and also the famed RyanAir-no- compromise inspection in England to
Italy, then back. But, th epoint is that the film indeed, was fogged. Rather low in contrast ultimately.
Jack F



On December2006, at 9:18 AM, Jordan Wosnick wrote:


Ryuji, I don't know the details, but I too have often wondered why people insist on having slow film hand-inspected rather than putting it through the carry-on luggage X-ray scanner. I have never actually seen any documented evidence of film being ruined by such a scanner.

I've read in the past that film gets exposed to more high-energy radiation during a flight (due to increased cosmic ray penetration at high altitudes) than it does in a carry-on luggage X-ray scanner. I don't know how true this is.

X-ray scanners for checked luggage are a different story, as they are much larger and more powerful.

Jordan

Ryuji Suzuki wrote:

Another curious note is this:
    In the several seconds the baby spent in the machine, the
    doctor added, he was exposed to as much radiation as he
    would naturally get from cosmic rays — or high energy from
    outer space — in a day. (quoted from LA Times link above)
Is this really true? Then what's the point of asking for hand
inspection of films? (if it's carried on anyway) The bar graph
in the article (as well as the video) indicates that the
radiation dose of the x-ray luggage screener is 1 mREM and
this indeed is not that much.

--


Jordan Wosnick
jwosnick@fastmail.fm