CT scanners are a newer type of X-ray machine that produces three-dimensional images of items being X-rayed. The X-ray emitter head and detector rotate around the object in CT scanners. Objects are exposed to more X-rays because of the thoroughness of CT scanners, which led Kodak to warn that they fog any film, even of low speed, with just one pass. A single scan with this technology is equivalent to hundreds of inspections with conventional X-rays.
In the past, CT scanning technology has been used for checked baggage for many years, which is why Kodak advised us professionals to take the film with us in carry-on luggage, so that if the agents did not agree to their inspection visual, it was only inspected by conventional two-dimensional X-rays.
New CT scans, though their energy of exposure is less than those of the older x-ray scans, as measured by the instantaneous energy beam blast, are always on. That means that the silver grains receive a much longer & larger dose of energy and that creates fog at much greater levels. Kodak testing indicated that even the 50D VISION3 film will show an increase in D-min and a significant increase in apparent grain with just one scan. |
| The deadly machine |
This weekend, I spoke with my friend Javier Guio, manager of Interphoto, the main photographic laboratory in Spain: he is shocked by the amount of damaged or destroyed photographic material that arrives after passing through North American, London or Amsterdam airports. "Everything is against us," he lamented.
Personally, I'm going to run into this problem on my way to Antarctica and I still don't know how to solve it!
Airport CT scanners not only destroy a way of working chosen by some, but will also eliminate thousands of jobs in Europe, among manufacturers of photographic equipment (as Tetenal) and laboratories (in Europe, we have several film manufacturers, such as OrWo, Adox, Foma, Polaroid and, in England, Ilford).
The only solution is political: it is urgent that a deputy in the European Parliament promote a European Union guideline that allows the visual inspection of hand luggage with raw unprocessed films, especially when the purpose of their use is officially accredited and if the filmmaker is member of a national (or European) Film Academy. And there is a politician who is deeply aware of the problem that affects the film users, a fighter man, a courageous man: Grant Shapps, but he is English!, currently in the government of his country, which unfortunately, outside of Europe, can help little.
More information (with photographs of damages), in Spanish, with automatic translation to your lenguage: CLICK HERE
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