Moderator
From Sky News
Questions
1) What happened in that earlier 1988 case
2) How dangerous are X-rays from those machines, was the child in real danger?
3) Can they damage electronic equipment we are taking through the airport
4) what is correct procedure for carrying infants?
Order of Kilopi
Very little danger indeed, is the answer. Dosemeters passed through modern airport X-ray machines register something between 50 and 500µSv/hr, so the child would probably get less than 10µSv. That's the equivalent of the extra dose you get from a high-altitude flight lasting a couple of hours at high latitudes, so the child would perhaps have taken the same radiation hit on the subsequent flight as it got in the scanner.
That sort of radiation level is harmless to electronics (otherwise your laptop would die when you flew on an intercontinental flight).
For comparison, many medical X-ray investigations will give you hundreds or thousands of microsieverts.
Grant Hutchison
Last edited by grant hutchison; 2006-Dec-29 at 01:18 PM.
Moderator
So was LAX being over cautious in sending the infant to hospital, given what you said?
Order of Kilopi
[cynic mode]My money is on a "cover your butt" act to avoid the lawsuit that will probably still happen. Can you imagine the free money that would come from suing LAX? I don't think it was over-caution, I think it was preemptive legal maneuver.[/cynic mode]Originally Posted by Sticks
I'm Not Evil.
An evil person would do the things that pop into my head.
Order of Kilopi
It's such a bizarre incident, I doubt if there was a contingency plan for it. I'd guess no-one at the airport was prepared to take responsibility for saying it was safe, and I'd further guess that some hapless emergency room doctor had to phone the manufacturer and then look up a radiation hazards table before being able to give the all-clear.
Further information: I forgot the X-ray doesn't operate continuously in modern machines, so the dose from a single scan is probably nearer 1µSv than 10. People who transport live tissue specimens by air are very interested in this sort of thing: here are some guys who looked at the risk to human marrow cells in transit (and found a dose of 1.5µSv per scan). The paper also contains a chart putting that dose in perspective with medical X-rays and the annual dose we all receive from cosmic rays and radon.
Some of the high-energy explosives scanners deliver a bigger hit, apparently (they're the ones that can fog your camera film, so they're generally labelled with a big yellow disclaimer). These folk, who transport horse semen, report the maximum dose from these scanners to be 300mrem, which is 3mSv, or about the level of a single CT scan in hospital.
Grant Hutchison
Order of Kilopi
I am a cynic, and I happen to think you tapped it perfectly. The truth is, this wasn't exactly the TSA's fault, the grandmother put the baby up on the machine track to take off her shoes, and once the TSA geek realized something was amiss, they hopped right on correcting the matter.
The kid's not going to be glowing anytime soon, but then, with anything with babies, any risk tends to be unacceptable risk.
Order of Kilopi
so, five years form now when the kid is flying faster than a speeding bullet, and looking thru walls with his x-ray vision, no one will blame the TSA?
Order of Kilopi
Depends on whether he's using his speed to outrun the police, or his x-ray vision to check out womens' dressing rooms.
/shrug
Order of Kilopi
I wonder if anyone investigated just why all the good looking women at the Daily Planet came down with radiation sickness?Depends on whether he's using his speed to outrun the police, or his x-ray vision to check out womens' dressing rooms.
Order of Kilopi
I thought that was lead poisoning after the court ordered repainting of the place.
Administrator
You need to read Larry Niven's "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" for all the details. Warning! Adult themes.
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