Last night I was watching NBC’s new comedy “Battery Park” and toward the end of the show, which incidently kind of sucked, two officers put a guy through the baggage X-Ray machine to find that he had swallowed balloons of heroin. Besides the fact that they probably weren’t following normal police procedure, if this happened in real life, could the X-Rays used in those machines have hurt the guy?
I don’t think X-rays can even identify heroin in a bag inside a body. I’ve heard of systems that identify explosives by analyzing X-ray absorption and scattering, but not drugs.
As for safety, well, I’m not sure what detectors they use. (Anybody know? Please tell me - or let me know of a good reference, preferably on-line.)
Anyway, Dosage of typical medical X-ray is about 100 millirem, and standard maximum exposure for nuclear workers is 5000 millirem (5 rem). A one-time dose of up to 25 rem has no detectable clinical effect. (I think they mean no immediate effect; long-term effects, such as increased chance of cancer, are less well known.) So, unless an airport X-ray is 50 times more powerful than a medical X-ray (highly unlikely) he’ll be safe, and even if it’s 250 times more powerful, there will be no immediate effect.
Sources:
http://www.chem.ualberta.ca/~plambeck/che/p101/p05015.htm http://ne43.ne.uiuc.edu/ans/rad_chart.html
WAG No. They claim that they won’t even fog photographic film.
I also doubt that they would be able to “see” the balloons. They are designed to show high density items. You can see some detail on low density items but not much.
Sorry, Starfish, but you are completely wrong. If I could find the damned link, I could prove it. But, take this as Gospel for now.
A few years ago, the X-Ray machines were basically re-invented. They now show colors according to density- AND are sensitive to the way PLASTICS block x-rays. This was in a direct attempt to be able to see Glock-type weapons. One was able to dissemble a gun thoroughly, and hide the components in one’s baggage, and re-assemble it on the airplane. God only knows how one smuggled bullets, I’m a gun hater, but I do have a colleague who shot the orientation video for this new generation of machines.
The reason they would make this person pass his body through that machine, is that the machine would READ the plastic/latex bags used to hold the drugs. The other way would be to force laxatives, and wait for the inevitable. X-Rays are faster, obviously. I’ve watched my shoulder bag go through,the various colors shown as the laptop and other plastic goodies are scanned is impressive. I see an art show one day, with nothing but high quality reproductions of people’s hand bags.
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
Why is it that I’ve been repeatedly warned not to put my new laptop computer through those things? Since I wouldn’t think X-rays would have any effect, that’s made me wonder if they use some kind of MRI-type technology.
DHR
God, that was snotty. Sorry, Starfish, that was a nasty way for me to start that reply. That’ll teach me not to re-read my posts…:0. I’m still looking for a link to the manufacturer of the new generation of X-Ray machines that are plastics- sensitive.
Cartooniverse.
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
My WAG? The machine to fear with a laptop is the metal detector. I always pass my laptop around the OTHER side of the X-ray machine, and ask for a hand check. If X-Rays affect LCD's, or magnetic storage devices ( IC Chips, HD, etc) it's news to me. But then again, I JUST got the memo on the Ed Sullivan Show cancellation, so I'm a bit behind here........
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
Mostly, but not entirely true. X-ray machines in use in the United States (I can’t vouch for other coutries’ machines) will not fog standard, comsumer-level speed film. By this I mean the speeds most people shoot with : 100, 200, or 400 speed film.
But super high speed films (starting around 1000) are so sensitive to light that even airport x-rays can expose them slightly.
~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~
Airport X-Ray machines won’t hurt your notebook PC. I’ve run mine through the concourse scanner all over the country at least 300 times and never had a problem. I’d be careful in a third world country with an old X-Ray because of the supposed higher magnetic field. But in the US, no problem.
An MRI scanner requres a much larger device (RF amplifier, powerful magnet, etc.)along with a pretty powerful computer. It would trash credit cards, hard drives, and floppies no problem so I don’t think they’ll ever use MRI scanners on baggage.
“Everybody smokes in hell”
So if you had some joints rolled up in your clothes in a suitcase, and tried to board a plane, could the machines see this? Is there any way (short of going through your luggage) they could tell you had them?
Tangentially curious,
Your Quadell
Actually, this raises another question: how well are those X-ray machines shielded? What about the person that sits next to the machine all day long, staring at carry-on luggage? Do they wear tags (like workers in nuclear plants) telling them when they’ve had too much radiation, and they need to go home for the day?
AW: Yes, the x-ray machine attendants to indeed wear radiation badges. Take a look next time you’re going through security; the indicators are usually above their nametags.
~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~
Not true at all, re: Glocks.
The slide and spring assemblies are entirely metal. The rest of the gun is mostly plastic, but contains enough metal molded into the plastic that it would show up anyway. Where exactly would you stash the steel slide from a Glock pistol? The thing weighs approx. 18 ounces (over 1 pound). The whole Glocks-defeating-metal-detectors concept is, to use the technical term, a buncha’ malarkey.
Mere Life is not Victory.
Mere Death is not Defeat.
Joe Cool