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[OM] Film and travel, some years back

Subject: [OM] Film and travel, some years back
From: "Benson Honig" <benson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 03:14:54 -0700
I've travelled the world over, through many xray machines. I usually, 
but not always,  use one of those X ray film shields, and also leave 
film in the camera subject to the usual scanner. I have only been 
"hit" by xray damaging the film in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia. Given the 
sophistication of their technology at the time, it was a wonder all the 
passengers did not glow in the dark during the flight. The film was 
marked with what looked like a meteor shower - you could almost 
see the individual xrays tracing across the images, randomly, hitting 
some images, not others. Not all the film in the bag was hit.

I used to be (in a former life) a CT engineer and later manager for 
G.E. Medical systems. We worked with Xray machines on a daily 
basis. X rays should NOT have any effect on the electronics or 
mechanics of any camera. If they did, all the X ray machines would 
stop working, as they are all electronically controlled (and often 
exposed to rays, depending on the location of the electronics). We 
did get damage when the Xray tubes failed - sometimes it could be 
quite radical - but that was from the internal High Voltage 
connections, not due to the Xrays themselves.

By the way, we would wear these little badges of film, and every 
month we would have to get them processed to see if we had been 
"zapped". If we were, we would often make up a story like "we left 
the badge in our luggage, and it must have been x-rayed at the 
airport". Apparently, some of the older more intensive luggage x-
rays were (are?) fairly strong. I have assumed that they might be 
stronger than those that are visually checked, as they have to go 
through more, thicker material. Sometimes, just wearing the badge 
on a high altitude plane flight would be enough to trigger an 
investigation.

Benson

> That said, this experience applies only to airports in the West, 
where
> good equipment is the norm.
>My girlfriend went to Siberia for four months a few years back. 
>When she
>came back and got her film developed she found that the majority 
>of it was not in focus. I attributed it to the camera in the cold 
>weather which she experienced while she was there as it was 
>working perfectly before she went. The camera never worked 
>again when she came back. I'm not sure but
>maybe the poor exposures could have been caused by some 
>radiation damagefrom a poor x-ray machine and not the camera. 
********************************
Words are the bridge from wish to reality, they possess the power
to turn thin air into great cities. But be careful, for that bridge can 
be traversed in both directions and rather than help build a great city, 
they can destroy a beautiful dream.
********************************
Benson Honig Ph.D.
University of Haifa
Graduate School of Business 
Room 7050
Tel: 972-4-8249582
     972-4-8249192
FAX: 972-4-8249194
E-mail: Benson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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