Airport X-Ray Report

[RichardB]

After taking about 20 rolls of slide film with me to Canada and New York, one thing that concerned me was that X-Rays might harm my film from security scanners, since I would not be putting them through twice but a lot more. So here's a list of when they were scanned in hand baggage check-in:

[*]Leeds/Bradford Airport (connection to Heathrow)
[*]Heathrow (outgoing to Toronto)
[*]Toronto (outgoing to La Guardia, NY)
[*]Empire State Building security
[*]United Nations building security
[*]La Guardia (returning to Toronto)
[*]Toronto (returning to Heathrow)
[*]Heathrow (returning to Leeds/Bradford)


(then films were sent for processing when I got home)

That's 8 times for some of the films (a few of them I left out of the bag after shooting them). The weather was extremely hot with no cloud in New York when a large number of these films were being carried around, and at one point they got left in a hot car in Canada for about an hour. 80% of the films were actually expired with a date of 11/2007. The films included 50 asa Velvia, 64 asa Kodachrome and 100 asa Velvia.

Not one of any of the films have shown any sign of X-Ray damage, heat discolouration, they all looked perfect. Conclusion? For films 100 asa or under, if you take them on with your hand luggage, X-Rays are not an issue. Maybe if you put them in a lead lined bag, then they'll get ruined as they turn up the juice on the X-Ray machine to see them, or you scanned them 20 times or something, but otherwise it's all groovy.

[MIKI-814]

That's good news, thank you for the report. It's a common question here in the forum.

[greg_8mm]

at Amsterdam airport they told me x-rays would only harm film stocks with higher asa's than 1000.. I've never had any problems with super8 and x-rays..

[Will2]

Carry-on luggage perhaps, but I've seen film with ASAs as low as 50 almost totally destroyed when accidently left in checked bags. The x-ray machines they nuke checked luggage with are intense.

Then there's the story of the guys carrying film back to LA from Hawaii for the LOST TV show that put it through carry-on x-rays and the result was several 100k worth of re-shoots. They were probably shooting 500T however.

[super8man]

Awesome report - nice to know...though in the future I am sure airlines will find a way to remove even your carryons for "security reasons."

For the time being, "prepare for departure!"

Cool.

[SKJ]

James Schneider did an experiment with air port X-rays machine.
I saw the results in January and thee certainly were visible and increasingly dramatic! Here's a description (from James Schneider's website, http://www.jamesjune.info) :

Part 1. Shroud of Security
3'30", 16mm, color, 2007

One hundred feet of un-shot 16mm (Kodak-7289, 800ASA) film was cut into 6 equal parts. Each piece was boxed separately and passed along to airline passengers to be placed in their check-in luggage. As they traveled, the boxes were separately subjected to x-ray checks 0, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 times. 23 carriers, an innumerable quantity of anonymous security personnel, and the cumulative radiation render the emulsion of Shroud of Security virtually transparent. Violet's soundtrack accords the agitated grain a pulverized soundtrack.

Part 2. Government Radiation
3', 16mm, color, 2007

For this second x-ray experiment, the first step was to film the US Capitol on 100 feet of 16mm film (Kodak-7205, 250 ASA). Then, using a process similar to that of Shroud of Security, the film was cut into 6 equal parts and passed through US Government security X-Ray machines in Washington DC 0, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 times. The result is a gradual effacing of the image. Sound by Violet (aka Jeff Surak).

[Clapton Pond]

Here's that link corrected:
http://jamesjune.info/xray/

[filmjockey]

Does anyone know what happens to film -- X ray wise -- sent through international mail or Fed X? Does its fate depend on policies of the countries it exits/enters or air carriers or both?

[RichardB]

I send all my Super 8 (and all my Kodachrome slides) abroad, to Switzerland for the slides where it goes to Dwayne's in Kansas, or directly to Dwaynes for the Super 8. Never had any X-Ray problems so far. Also had no problems when sending 64T to be pushed to 160 asa at Nanolab, Australia.

[filmjockey]

Good news, thanks.

[Wade]

Does anyone know what happens to film -- X ray wise -- sent through international mail or Fed X? Does its fate depend on policies of the countries it exits/enters or air carriers or both?

About FedEx I know a little something. In 2004 I asked one of their executives about shipping film in general. He sent me a link to their official terms and policies which said they reserve the right to passively and actively inspect shipments. That link is no longer active, but the passive inspections means things like using X-rays. I know that after 911 Fed Smith--CEO of FEDEX--, as a business concern, was actively developing new technoligies for passive inspection. They work closely with DHS/customs. Suffice it to say the exec. at FedEx reccommended using a filmshield if shipping unexposed film through their system because they would not guarantee it not getting ruined. I understand, this by second hand info, that UPS does not use radiation devices in their domestic, USA, shipping system--that is, they do not use, as a matter of routine, high energy, ionizing gamma radiation to x-ray packages as does FedEx and USPS. To summarize, FedEx and the Post Office regularly use some sort of radiation to scan at least some of their packages both domestic and international. UPS, apparently, doesn't use radiation regularly in their domestic system. I do not know if UPS does anything different for international shipments. Hope this helps a little.

[aj]

Contraire to popular belief: Mail is NOT routinely X-rayed.
This is also acknowledged by postal service.

Who do people think is looking at all the scans??? This is millions and millions of items per day.

And when nothing is wrong with airport x-ray machines they are not going to influence anybody's films. For years they have been using electronic sensors and amplified systems were the dosis is very low. The inspectors are not looking at phospherous tubes where actual x-ray form the images.

[S8 Booster]

according zu zhe x-ray experts at our most modern airport (international) they explained that the latest x-ray machines scanning hand luggage will not cause ANY damage to film slower than ISO1600 or 1600 ASA for the neanderthalers....

shoot....

[Wade]

Returning to the original topic the consensus here is that your unexposed film is safe in carry-on luggage if your unexposed film has an ASA lower than 1000.

Mail is NOT routinely X-rayed.

Not sure you are refering to my post. Do you mean that the United States Postal Service (USPS) does not inspect every item in it's system? I agree. The USPS says this is so, and I believe them. Are you saying the none of their freight is regularly x-rayed? That would probably not be true, but we can't really know for sure since they aren't going to tell us. Using FedEx as an example, where I have first hand experience and know they passively inspect a huge percentage of their freight, I believe it is accurate to say :

To summarize, FedEx and the Post Office regularly use some sort of radiation to scan at least some of their packages both domestic and international.

If FedEx passively inspects their packages why wouldn't the USPS also do the same? *** The Post Office acutally employs 1700 people to, in part, find bombs and such in their system. Regardless of what you think of government empolyees, they probably aren't always eating lunch and playing tiddilywinks. (Don't forget about breakfast and dinner! :lol: )

***The caveat in all this is what is meant by passive inspection. It is not necessarily X-Ray.

Kindly,