Ok, I’ve wondered about this for years. I have about 5 pounds of steel rods and pins in my left leg and hip (nasty motorcycle accident in 1987) I travel alot for business and I’ve never once set off an airport metal detector. Why not? I’ve got enough chrome-steel in me to have a handgun, bullets and a decent sized bowie-knife. I guess I need to know just how a metal detector works. Could you wrap some meat around a weapon to get it past one? Put a weapon in a body cavity? (eeewww…yuck). I’ve heard alot of guesses about electro-magnetic fields but no real science.
I will say that for a while i used an asthma inhaler that used metal canisters,and i never had a problem walking right through the metal detector with it in my pocket (yes i just like beating the system :D).
Seemed odd when other people were setting it off with even smaller metal objects.
My husband has 2 or 3 screws holding one of his leg bones together (skydiving accident) and he has set off metal detectors several times. Most recently, he had to take off his shoe and sock and have the magic wand waved over his bare foot/ankle/lower leg before the security folks were convinced he wasn’t carrying something illegal.
I’ve had my hair barrettes set off the detectors! Guess it depends on where the sensitivity level is set.
Don’t know the science of it, but there was a case up here recently of a lady who set off the dectector in the airport. Neither she nor the security guards could find what was setting it off, so they waved her through. Then the penny dropped - the lady had been having abdominal pains since a recent surgery. She went to her doctor for an X-ray - yup, 13 inch retractor had been left inside.
Lawsuit is pending…
Hmmm… sounds like an ‘urban myth’ to me.
Not all metal detectors are created equal. I used to travel through Bahrain a lot and the detector would always go off. I even went to the trouble of wearing no metal at all one time (no zips, no shoe buckles, no belts etc). I still set it off. They had the thing set so high it must have been reacting to the fillings in my teeth.
Very well could happen. A few years ago a gentleman received a settlement from the University of Washington Medical Center because a 13 inch retractor was left in him. It was from page news in the Seattle area.
But what would be the logic in setting it so high?
Since almost everyone wears clothing with zippers or has a metal filling wouldn’t it go off everytime someone walked through?
Seems pointless.
I also have a Steel rod in my femur along with a couple of Pins in my hip from a 30 ft fall. Based on my experiences I would have to agree with FCM and say it depends on the setting of the machine at the time. A short while back I set off the detector in Albuquerque then walked through the same one a week later and it didn’t go off. :rolleyes:
Once I had a job that had me spending a lot of time at San Francisco City Hall in the period when they installed scanners at the entrances. After a while I caught on that the “scanners” were not plugged into power sockets (there were none at the entrances), and it turned out that the guards had a thumb button and battery operated buzzer.
There was a frame you walked through, but no one was getting scanned, just eyeballed. “Buzz!! Pardon me, may I see the contents of that bag?”
Whoops:o
Thanks for the heads up. Cool story. Still no answer about what principles are involved in the actual scan though, darn.
I think it depends what kind of metal your implant is made of. I’ve also got a plate and a bunch of screws in my leg, and have never set off a metal detector (with my leg, anyway). The keycard for my office sometimes sets them off, though.
According to this The Last Word article Why doesn’t the steel plate in my leg cause airport security alarms to go off? the metal used in your body would most likely be non-magnetic steel.
Yes, they searched everyone. Why? I have no idea. Definitely pointless, especially as it was a detector that was only for transit passangers.
Hey, looks like the answer I wanted. Thanks!