Radiation patients raising false dirty bomb alarms

Handheld radiation detectors sound well and good, and are designed to detect the threat of dirty bombs or other radiation, which seems like a just cause, but they also appear to be picking up a good many false positives from recent subjects of radiation treatment. After being injected or implanted with radioisotopes, the patient can be "hot" for up to three months, and with 60,000 people a day undergoing such treatment or tests in the US, and 12,000 handheld radiation detectors out there to sniff these people out, it's understandable that there are more than a few people getting flagged and searched -- sometimes quite intimately -- at security checkpoints. Doctors are encouraged to warn their patients of such inconveniences, and some doctors even write notes or hand out a card that allows security personnel to confirm the treatment. There's no word on beefing up the sensors themselves, but there are usually tests available at such sites that can ascertain the type of radiation -- not a perfect system, but we don't recommend making a run for it all the same.

[Via Boing Boing]

[fraggle_rocker @ Jan 30th 2007 3:19AM]

Dirty bombs are not a threat, if they were they would be stocked by nearly every military in the world. They cause a mere inconvenience at most. The only way you are gonna die from a dirty bomb is if you are hit by the initial blast, or stand perfectly still after the blast for 600 years..

[artifex @ Jan 30th 2007 3:38AM]

So the next smart weapon in the terrorists' arsenal is... a sympathetic doctor to write notes for their cells. Right?

[Ken @ Jan 30th 2007 10:25AM]

What? No mention of false positives from banana's?

There are detectors thast can differentiate the "non-threats", but they aint cheap.

[Trent @ Jan 30th 2007 2:14PM]

Just quit flying. They will relax the TSA nonsensical rules if no one flies. Screw em. If you thought any of this was actually going to catch a terrorist, you were mistaken.

[Todd Ellner @ Jan 30th 2007 4:53PM]

BTDT. Three years ago I had I-131 treatment for cancer. Didn't cause any problems on the way up to Canada. On the way back I set off alarms at US Customs. It caused quite the stir. Alarms went off. Border guards appeared with pistols and radiation monitors. They searched the car. I got to carry around a cute little orange sign with the words "Nuclear. Chemical. Biological." until they figured out what was going on.

[shanghaitom @ Jan 30th 2007 10:57PM]

From first-hand experience, I can say this is a problem. I got the full shake-down last year after spending all night in a hospital emergency room with a relative and going straight to the airport. Apparently, I picked up enough radiation, just being in the same proximity!