[ RadSafe ] Re: Infant goes through airport X-ray machine

[Jacobus, John (NIH/OD/ORS) [E]]

Fetuses have been exposed in uterio while the mother received a CT scan with no harmful effects found in the baby after birth. 


-- John
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I am currently not in the office. This message was sent from my BlackBerry. 

----- Original Message -----
From: Sandy Perle <sandyfl at earthlink.net>
To: radsafe at radlab.nl <radsafe at radlab.nl>; Jacobus, John (NIH/OD/ORS) [E]
Sent: Wed Dec 20 17:15:00 2006
Subject: Infant goes through airport X-ray machine

Received this courtesy of John Jacobus on another listserver:

Note: The actions taken by TSA are beyond ridiculous. The X-ray 
machines used for checked bags emits such an infinitesimally small 
radiation exposure, significantly less than a chest x-ray. Yet they 
send the baby to a hospital and consider whether the baby received a 
"dangerous dose of radiation"! Guess you can pass film through the X-
tray unit and not be concerned that there will be any fogging, but be 
concerned about a baby, knowing that there really is no dose! Look at 
the message this sends all of the other passengers, hospital 
personnel, EMT personnel, etc.!

Story Highlights
o Grandmother leaves infant in plastic bin at airport X-ray machine
o Baby goes through machine at Los Angeles International Airport
o Baby checked out at hospital and is fine

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- 

A woman sent her 1-month-old grandson through an X-ray machine at Los 
Angeles International Airport, security officials said Wednesday.

The woman, who spoke little English and was traveling to Mexico, put 
the infant in a plastic bin used to hold loose carry-on items for 
security scanning at the busy airport Saturday morning.

Security screeners saw the baby as it started to pass through, pulled 
the bin out, and immediately sought medical assistance for the child, 
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said.

The baby was examined at a local hospital and judged not to have 
received a dangerous dose of radiation.

"The lady obviously mistakenly put the baby in the machine. It was an 
unfortunate incident," Melendez said.

Airport officials said it was an innocent mistake by an inexperienced 
traveler and only the second such incident there since 1988, when a 
baby in a car seat went through an X-ray scanner.

-------------------------------------
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