RE: Effect of Airport X-ray

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 08:01:14 -0700 (PDT)
>From: P3D Mike Province writes:
>
>As I understand it, the X-Rays are not harmful to
>the film. According to what I've been told, it's
>the electrical and magnetic fields from the X-Ray
>machines that do the damage. At any rate, having
>the film in clear containers, and having them
>hand checked, is the best thing to do.
>
>Mike Province
>San Diego

Not True!!!  X-Rays ARE a very high energy  form of electro-magnetic
radiation. All film is sensitive to this radiation to some degree. It is
very much like light except that it isn't stopped by ordinary solid matter.
That's why there is concern about film exposure during X-Ray inspection. I
know several people who have had film damaged during such inspection. While
that was a number of years ago and today's machines may be less intense,
that would only be true in a general sense and there is always the
possibility of a machine out of adjustment or some other reason for which
they may increase the intensity at some time for security reasons. It's
always safest to avoid such exposure as much as possible both for your
person or your film.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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