Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax!trevorc
From: trevorc@uwovax.uwo.ca
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Airport hassle with laptops?
Message-ID: <8062.27669139@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: 13 Dec 90 01:21:13 GMT
References: <4117@mindlink.UUCP>
Organization: Nuclear Medicine, U. Western Ontario, Canada
Lines: 31

In article <4117@mindlink.UUCP>, a1695@mindlink.UUCP (Guy Saffold) writes:
> I've been through almost every major airport in Canada from Montreal to
> Victoria carrying my laptop and have never been asked to demostrate
> that it works.  I carry it in my briefcase which I simply run through
> the x-ray machine.  Is there a hazard in this?  Over the past two years
> I have yet to detect any problems.  I also routinely send my data disks
> through the x-ray machines--sometimes the same disk will go through the
> machine ten times on a single trip.  Again, in two years of this I've
> yet to lose even a single byte of data.
Previous comments regarding x-rays and possible damage to a laptop and/or 
discs seem to be soemwhat alarmist.  A fellow medical physicist and I could 
not understand what damage x-rays could cause to floppies so we conducted 
an experiment in which we subjected both 5.25 and 3.5 floppies to 
increasing doses of x-rays from a standard diagnostic unit.  The doses were 
several orders of magnitude greater than airport security systems but we 
were unable to detect any damage at all - we used Norton utilities to check 
for bad blocks after each exposure.  This should calm fears of damage to 
floppies and, presumably, hard discs.  I have no idea what damage various 
chips might suffer but doubt very much if it would cause problems.
I have often been asked to operate my laptop and my greatest concern on 
those occasions has been the quality of the mains power supply that the 
security personnel have asked me to use.  It was decidedly poor on one 
occasion at Toronto airport (Terminal 2), international departures.
-- 

Trevor Cradduck,                |  Phone: (519) 667-6574     
Department of Nuclear Medicine, |  FAX: (519) 667-6734
Victoria Hospital,              |  E-mail:
University of Western Ontario,  |  BITNET:   TREVORC@UWOVAX.BITNET
LONDON,  Ontario,               |  INTERNET: TREVORC@UWOVAX.UWO.CA
Canada,  N6A 4G5                |  UUCP:     TREVORC@RIA.UWO.CA