This is the post from the SAA list that I mentioned yesterday, copied
here with permission.
David Hoffman
At 20:27 +0100 31/3/02, David Paterson wrote:
>The Association of Photographers in London carried out a series of
>very exhaustive tests some years ago, in which film of several
>different speeds was passed through typical airport x-ray equipment
>up to 100 times. I don't remember their conclusions in detail, but
>one result was certainly that you could xray 100ASA film many, many
>times without any noticeable effect.
>
>I have had film ruined twice by airport xrays. In both cases the film
>was in checked-in baggage, not cabin bags, and it is well-known that
>checked-in baggage is subject to random xraying at a far higher
>intensity than that used by the machines at check-in.
>
>On a longish commercial shoot in Saudi Arabia some years ago I made
>several internal flights there. All bags were xrayed twice in the
>departure airport and again before leaving the destination airport.
>In all, my film (from 35mm to 8x10") must have been xrayed about
>twenty times, without any effect. This is no guarantee, of course,
>that things can't go wrong, but I believe that there is little to
>fear from the machines at check-in/security check time, and I have no
>hesitation now in putting my film through such machines.
--
__________________________________________________________
David Hoffman Photo Library
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phone +44 (0)20 8981 5041 fax +44 (0)20 8980 2041
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