Film & CT Scanning

I heard on the radio this morning that here in the US there is talk about bringing CT scanning to airports to scan carry on bags. This is supposed to help speed up security check ins because removing laptops from bags will no longer be necessary.

I'm very comfortable letting my film get X-rayed but am not knowledgeable to know how much worse having film CT scanned is.

Is CT scanning film a no no?

CT scanning carry-on doesn't make sense from a efficiency perspective. The machine has to make multiple images in circular slices of the entire area of interest. It makes no sense from an operators or by-stander safety perspective. The dose from a CT procedure is significantly higher compared to routine X-Ray. CT would likely fry your film.

Modern CT scanners are quite fast but interpreting the scans would take longer than current technology. The advantage to film photographers is that the bag only needs to be scanned once and then multiple reconstructions can be created with no further radiation, as opposed to the current system where reevaluations require additional radiation.

Security checks, at least in the US, are so slow because the checkpoints are never fully staffed. I can't remember any security check I've been through in the last 2 years where over half of the available lines were actually staffed.

Saganich said:

CT scanning carry-on doesn't make sense from a efficiency perspective.

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Probably why the government wants to do it!

It has been announced that CT scanning of carry-on luggage will be started at Phoenix airport, then expand to additional airports, as a means of speeding up the Security throughput. The article made it sound as if some automation in analyzing images would be the reason for faster processing, rather than relying upon a human to scan the X-ray image on the screen.

CT does user higher doses of X-ray radiation, which is why checked luggage had the no-film in checked luggage guidance from Kodak. It sounds as if TSA (and American Airlines) feel that travellers carrying film is no longer much of a consideration!

Here is the story: Dead Link Removed

Oh Lord. I would not put any film in, under or near a CT scanner. Interestingly, there is no technical information about the CT scanners in use/proposed, and how they have been modified (assumedly) so that anything metallic doesn't cause strife.

Poisson Du Jour said:

Oh Lord..... and how they have been modified (assumedly) so that anything metallic doesn't cause strife.

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CT scaning uses X-rays. Lots and Lots of X-rays.

You may be thinking of MRI which is possibly film safe, but uses high strength magnetic fields which is hard on any magnetic or conductive materials.

Put your film in old Kodak metal canisters to protect them from the radiation

Nodda Duma said:

Put your film in old Kodak metal canisters to protect them from the radiation

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hardly enough, remember that if the inspectors can't see clearly they retry at a higher dose. Kodak Motion Picture division has posted pictures of X-ray Damage and Movie film is always shipped in steel cans which are more substantial than the antique Kodak aluminium cans.