RE: Airport Xrays

[Stephen Puckett <spuckett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter Marshall wrote today about a film project ruined by X-rays.  
Sorry I cannot check the Web for versions but I found this posting 
from our very own maillist:
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Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 21:57:29 +1000
From: "Mitchell P. Warner" <indepth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: X-rays
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I'm not sure of the validity, but the second party that passed 
this on is usually reliable.  

The following sites mention the scanner:

http://www.cassbeth.com/technology/players.html

http://www.aclu.org/congress/t011497a.html

http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/950724/dia2lg.html

Greetings ACRA-list-members -- for those of you planning on flying 
for fun or  fieldwork this summer, watch out for those airport 
X-ray machines! Two  recent   articles, one in the May/June issue 
of Photo Techniques and one from the editorial in May's Shutterbug, 
describe new "Film-killer X-ray" security  equipment being used in 
"certain large American and foreign airports" which  destroys film, 
exposed and otherwise.  The new equipment is InVision  Technologies 
CTX-5000 baggage scanner which the FAA is paying for (they  cost a   
 cool $900,000 each!).  On MOST domestic flights, only checked 
baggage is at  risk, they say, but on international flights, 
"carry-on baggage may be at risk as well."  When asked, an InVision 
official acknowledged that the "rate of  scanned films that are 
damaged is
100%."  

Apparently David Attenborough and crew found out this was too true.
He and a BBC film crew spent five weeks in  New Guinea filming on 
location and passed thru the Manchester airport and lost 
everything!

The photo folks say we have three options: insist on having your 
film hand-inspected, buy your film when you get there and/or ship 
film to yourself to your work site (and home) in several batches by 
way of a shipper such as Fed/Ex who will guarantee no x-raying.  
Oh, and if you thought maybe using one of those lead bags would 
help--get this.  These new X-ray machines are  programmed to 
respond to anything mysterious by re-scanning just that area with a 
high-power narrow beam CAT scan which will penetrate anything -- so 
the lead bag GUARANTEES your film is ruined.  The FAA will not give 
out the list of the airports with these new X-rayers for security 
reasons but InVision has a web site which posts the domestic list 
-- no help for the foreign ones, tho.

So hang on to your film bags, folks.
    
    Anne Stoll
    Behavioral Sciences
    University of La Verne
    La Verne, California