Liquid emulsion and X-rays

[Alfredo A]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I'd like to ask if liquid emulsion (ADOX Polywarmtone, Foma, etc.) is affected by airport X-rays. I live in Spain, and it's hard to find ADOX liquid emulsion here. I'm planning to travel to Germany soon and would like to buy it there, but I'm not sure if the X-rays will damage it.
Thank you very much, and best regards from Granada

 

[koraks]

Welcome back @Alfredo A (registration date says 2011...so not entirely new, I take it!)

Yes, liquid emulsions are sensitive to x-rays, but the 'poison is in the dosage' as the saying goes. Regular carry-on x-ray scanners are not likely to pose a problem, but the more powerful and modern CT-scanners found increasingly in airports are. Since these are liquids, you're likely planning to put them in hold luggage and that's not a good idea, as the scanners used for hold luggage are known to cause problems.

Can't you simply order e.g. the Adox product from FotoImpex and have it delivered to Spain?

 

[Alfredo A]

Hahaha, yeah, I saw that I signed up in 2011, but I haven't been on the forum in years... I could order it and have it shipped to me, but since I'm going to Berlin, I was planning on buying it there.
Thanks for the reply

 

[wiltw]

Keep in mind that coated emulsions for films, typically are up to ISO 400 in sensitivity, and that coated film emulsions at/above ISO 1600 may exhibit some effects from multiple exposures to X-ray, but slower are generally not exhibiting bad effect even from multiple passes.
OTOH, most liquid emulsions (e.g., Foma, Liquid Light) are roughly equivalent to a slow ISO 1–12, exceedingly slow. And in solution any local 'fogging' would be dispersed by nature of the liquid state. And the very brief duration of X-ray or even CT would be analogous to 'pre-flashing' any longer exposure emulsion (like photographic paper) which otherwise would need more exposure to even start up the toe of its exposure curve.