I always insisted upon manual inspection of film at airports, because when I
challenged the people running the carry-on baggage scanner to tell me what the
radiation dose was, they always danced, or made irrelevant threatening noises.
Sure it's low dose... And, I have a bridge for sale, cheap...
Until I challenged a guard operating a carry-on baggage scanner at Schipol in
Amsterdam. He looked at me strangely, surprised I think, said wait a minute,
ran into the office, and emerged with the manual for the scanner.
The manual said 0.01 rads, which isn't much, about one tenth of a chest X-ray
(or a flight from Boston to LA). So I relented, and let him X-ray the whole
lot, and no harm came of it.
Nor has any harm come of multiple passes through such scanners since then.
I used only ASA 100 film back then. I use ASA 400 a lot now (in a
point-and-shoot carried for business travel), and I haven't seen any damage
either. (The point-and shoot was an Olympus XA, but I now also use a Yashica
T4.)
That said, this experience applies only to airports in the West, where good
equipment is the norm.
Joe Gwinn
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