Re: Airport Security?

[Simon Ogilvie <simon_ogilvie@ionica.co.uk>]

On the subject of airport X-ray machines, Kodak did a test
at Heathrow recently (can't remember exactly when but it
may have been earlier this year) where they passed a selection
of film types through the Heathrow machines.  They put batches
through different numbers of times, so that the most exposed
batch had been through the X-rays 32 times (IIRC).  The whole
lot was then developed and compared with "control" films with
no exposure to X-ray, and even the high-speed films passed
through mutliple times showed no more background fogging
than was on the control films.  This included the TMAX 3200
emulsion.

This test was widely reported in the UK photo press, and was
apparently one deciding factor for Heathrow to justify refusal
of hand searches.  The X-ray dosage should be similar for most
modern well-maintained X-ray equipment, but of course there's
no guarantee that all countries use modern well-maintained
X-ray equipment...

Incidentally, the question about whether the film is uprated or
not *is* relevant, as push processing will increase the effect
of any background fogging when compared to "useful" image.

Simon.