Baby put through X-ray machine at LAX

MSNBC ^ | December 2006 | Associated Press

[Aggie Dad]

LOS ANGELES - A one-month-old baby has been checked and cleared by a Los Angeles hospital after being put through an airport X-ray machine.

Authorities at Los Angeles International Airport say an inexperienced traveler mistakenly put her grandson through a carry-on luggage screener.

A startled security worker noticed the shape of a child and immediately pulled the baby out.

A spokesman for LAX says the incident Saturday was an innocent mistake.

In 1988, an infant in a car seat went through an X-ray machine at the airport.

[UpAllNight]

--NOBODY? watches bags going INTO the machine?--

You haven't flown in sometime, right?

[Squawk 8888]

They don't mention what the health risks are to this baby.

Probably next to nothing. The airport scanners use a far lower dose than medical x-rays.

[Doohickey]

NOBODY? watches bags going INTO the machine?

Not in my experience, and I travel pretty extensively.

[CheyennePress]

haha! Brittany Spears was my first thought, as well.

[WakeUpAndVote]

HAHAHAHAHA! You owe me a keyboard!

[beaversmom]

I read one report that said that the grandmother could not understand English.

America's/President Bush's fault. They should have big warning signs over the machine--a baby in a carrier with an X through it.

[Arthalion]

You don't really fly, do you?

FWIW, I've never had to put my shoes in a bin either. SFO, San Diego, Sacramento, LAX. In a dozen flights since 9/11, I've only been asked to remove my shoes twice. At SFO they held them up to some machine for a second.

In my experience, the security procedures vary widely between airports and even between screeners. In Palm Springs, my carryon was barely even looked at. The only time I've EVER had a really thorough search was in the tiny little Modesto airport, and the two screeners were digging through my carry-on like crackheads looking for a hidden score. Every pocket and fold on both myself and my bags were checked. I was asked to remove my shoes then too, but even that time they weren't binned...the person just looked them over quickly and handed them back.

[AFPhys]

"Your checked bags could be hit with up to 300mR of X-rays by the new CTX series luggage scanners. " ... from http://home.kc.rr.com/aaronphoto/xray.html

That's not really a major amount.

"The average exposure for Americans is about 360 mrem (3.6 mSv) per year, 81 percent of which comes from natural sources of radiation." http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/bio-effects-radiation.html (sounds right to me... I work with radiation a bit, so I've some expertise... 300mrem/yr natural dose sounds good. Pilots subject themselves to on that order additional cosmic radiation per year, too)

This is about the same as having the kid live in the eastern Rockies for 5 years, where everyone gets on the order of 50mrem /year (Denver,CO) more natural radiation from cosmic rays. If you were to get dose of 30,000mrem, it is possible that a sophisticated blood test could detect that you were exposed to radiation. (Radiation workers in the US seldom get 100mrem/yr above background), but radiation sickness requires about double that dose to be in evidence.

Using worst case assumptions, it appears that the chances of this kid suffering from any long term enhancement in cancer and such risks amount to under 1 in 100... and since the likelihood of cancer resulting from natural radiation exposure appears to be on the order of somewhat under 1%, that means the kid's chances of this would be about 1.01%
... (I suspect living with someone who doesn't speak English is correlated with a far greater enhancement for risk of premature death)

[Tenacious 1]

....Try the veal. Don't forget to tip your waitress...

[AFPhys]

Another useful comparison: a dental XRay is about 150mrem...

[UpAllNight]

--Clearly the baby had less than 1 ounce of fluid in its diaper as it was allowed on-board and not placed in checked luggage.--

The rule is 3-1-1.

[UpAllNight]

--Another useful comparison: a dental XRay is about 150mrem...--

Uh, about 2 mrem.

[Kirkwood]

No offense, but I don't believe you. I go through airports every week and what you describe is not SOP for airports in the US. All shoes in the US are inspected since the shoe bomber. Even in Europe which has rather lax standards, SOP in the last year has been shoe removal.

[zeke15]

I think granny is smarter than we think. This is obviously a stolen baby used as a diversion so granny could sneak her larger than 3 ounces of hair gel, shaving cream, and lotion on to the plane.

She would have got away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids.

[NYorkerInHouston]

This has been the case for me at PHL, Logan, San Diego, Honolulu, SeaTac, and Brunswick ME

To that you can add Houston Intercontinental, Houston Hobby, Norfolk, Westchester County, and JFK.

[Arthalion]

I don't know what to tell you. Since I'm a 6'1" blue eyed blonde flying first class in a business suit, maybe they just don't consider me a threat :-)

What you believe really doesn't matter to me. 11 flights total since 9/11. I've only been asked to remove my shoes twice, and they've NEVER sent them through an X-Ray machine.

[ConservaTexan]

Grammy was in a hurry and made a mistake. She barely got the baby out of the Maytag in time to get to the airport in time for her flight.

[UpAllNight]

--(Radiation workers in the US seldom get 100mrem/yr above background), but radiation sickness requires about double that dose to be in evidence.--

Radiation sickness requires about 500 times that amount and in a much shorter (acute dose) time period.

[Grizzled Bear]

Probably next to nothing. The airport scanners use a far lower dose than medical x-rays.
__________________________________________________________
Let's ask the expert.

Al,

It that enough to stune your beeber?

[Cementjungle]

As we speak there are 6,298 laywers scrambling to represent the family in their lawsuit against TSA.