[ RadSafe ] Cell phone automatic radiation detection

[Ernesto Faillace]

The article does go on to explain that the cell phone detectors would be
able to screen out radioactive commercial items such as bananas and screen
out nuclear medicine patients.  From what the article explains at the
end, researchers do appear to be aware of these issues, but color me
skeptical that such discrimination can be built into such a small size
detector at a reasonabl price...

Not to mention the issues with NYC's proposed regulations on registration of
radiation detectors, especially ones that send their signals to some
monitoring station.  Imagine having to register each of these cell phones
when travelling to a major global business hub such as NYC.  Perhaps the
phones could be programmed to "self-register" when in range of a NYC cell
phone site.  I can imagine what privacy advocates might think of this
arrangement!

Ernesto


Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:04:23 -0800
From: "Flood, John" <FloodJR at nv.doe.gov>
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Cell phone automatic radiation detection.
To: "Louie Cueva" <louie at tgainc.com>, Franz Sch?nhofer
       <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>,  radsafe at radlab.nl
Message-ID:
       <3F9210628ADD1D44949E7FD0841A6B2B011D1984 at NTS-VPO1-WS.NTS.OPS>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I appreciate the post of the entire text of this announcement - it's very
interesting.

Am I missing something or oversimplifying?  This seems to me to be doomed to
failure because of nuclear medicine.  Patients moving around a city in
essentially random patterns would make it impossible to identify one
detected source as hostile amongst a large array of detected sources that
are medical in nature.  And the number of these patients will increase
substantially as the baby-boomer generation ages.  Discrimination based on
photon energy won't help, either.

John R. (Bob) Flood
Radiological Health
Nevada Test Site
(702) 295-2514

-- 
Ernesto Faillace
ernesto.faillace at gmail.com