Baby is sent through X-ray machine at LAX

[question everything]

Baby is sent through X-ray machine at LAX
A woman places her month-old grandson in a bin for carry-on items. Doctors later determine he did not get a dangerous dose of radiation.
By Jennifer Oldham
Times Staff Writer

December 20, 2006

A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine. The early Saturday accident — bizarre but not unprecedented — caught airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time, officials said. A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt. The infant was taken to Centinela Hospital, where doctors determined that he had not received a dangerous dose of radiation.

Officials, who declined to release the 56-year-old woman's name, said she spoke Spanish and apparently did not understand English. She initially didn't want the baby transported to a hospital, but security officials called paramedics and insisted that the child be examined by a doctor. The grandmother and the child were subsequently allowed to board an Alaska Airlines flight to Mexico City. The rare incident drew attention to whether officials are staffing often-busy security checkpoints enough to prevent such an accident. And it raised questions about the danger of X-rays used to pick out suspicious metal shapes in passenger bags, given the medical community's warnings that even low amounts of radiation can build up over a lifetime.

(snip)

Security experts said the incident underscored a more widespread concern about the screening process at LAX and other airports. "The screeners are still reporting that they're being pushed," said Brian Sullivan, a retired Federal Aviation Administration security agent. "If a baby can get through, what the hell else can get through?" Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which manages LAX screeners, said the agency doesn't have enough workers to constantly stand at tables in front of the screeners to coach passengers on what should or should not be sent through X-ray machines.

(snip)

The baby that went through the airport luggage machine was exposed to less radiation than a passenger on a cross-country flight. Typical radiation exposures*:
Luggage screener: 1
Cross-country flight: 5
Chest X-ray: 10
Mammogram: 30
* Measured in millirems, which takes into account both the amount of exposure and the biological effect of the type of radiation in question.



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-baby20dec20,1,5234712.story?coll=la-headlines-california

[Eurobabe]

1. Jeez Louise!

I think I need to have more mammograms done.

[Caoimhe]

2. Proving once again that you don't have to have a fully

functioning brain to breed.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Perhaps the lack of experience flying, the strictness of rules, and bad translation

(imagine being told in very short terms "EVERYTHING YOU ARE CARRYING MUST GO THROUGH THE MACHINE!") and age were also factors.

[question everything]

15. I wonder about other passengers

even if it was not busy, LAX always has many passengers. Did no one see her putting the baby in the bin???

[marshall]

6. she didn't speak english!

I wonder if their signage reflected the languages of the passengers. You would think with a flight going to Mexico City they would have staff on hand who could communicate in Spanish. She probably didn't know what to do and was scared to death.

[MidwestTransplant]

9. Everybody in LA speaks spanish!

[theHandpuppet]

19. Yeah, but her BRAIN should speak COMMON SENSE

Any person who puts their baby through an airport screener has grits for brains, no matter what language they speak.

[durrrty libby]

8. Oh fer chris-sake give ol grammy a break

I thought dems were supposedly the empathetic party

If so...it sure has been it short supply around here lately!

:hangover: :hurts: :freak: :argh: :scared: :thumbsdown:

[hashibabba]

13. Old Granny??? She's 56. I can do most anything I could

when I was younger, and I'm not senile yet! ;)

[damntexdem]

3. But was the baby a terrorist?

Who knows what it might be smuggling in its diaper? ;-)

[lurky]

7. I'm guessing some kind of "Dirty Bomb"

Sorry, couldn't resist :evilgrin:

[LiberalFighter]

11. Probably was dirty and probably a bomb too with a stink like that

[newyawker99]

23. Hi lurky!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[sweetheart]

4. At least the baby was supervised

The nannys shouldn't have a problem with this one,
as she was with the baby the whole time,
and that's all that's important.

You can't outlaw stupidity.

[daleo]

10. This happened in Canada a few years back, as well

The baby was aboriginal, I think, which added an extra dimension to the case.

[Lisa]

29. I seem to recall that the baby was bundled on a carrying board

... a traditional thing in some northern aboriginal cultures. I forget which airport it was, but it was certainly one where the staff ought to have been familiar with the practice, since there were regular flights to northern communities. The employee responsible had claimed that the infant had been mistaken for "luggage".

[LiberalFighter]

12. I wonder how much exposure the workers are receiving after a year or two

[krispos42]

14. Sayyyyyyy... that' s not a 'Tickle Me Elmo'...... n/t

[LeftHander]

16. Less radiation...? I doubt it....

Do you thing the makers of these machine would release the true specs of it's capability?

I suspect is way more radiation hazard INSIDE the x-ray machine that people realize....the screeners do...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. "Do you thing the makers of these machine"

"would release the true specs of it's capability?"

Well, yeah I do. It's radiation. It's tightly controlled and easily measured.

[Tesha]

20. Why do you "doubt it"?

> Less radiation...? I doubt it....
>
> Do you thing the makers of these machine would release the true specs of it's capability?
>
> I suspect is way more radiation hazard INSIDE the x-ray machine that people realize....the screeners do..

Why do you "doubt it"? Do the machines fog photo film?

(Try that with your local medical X-Ray machine and see
how the Kodacolor snaps of your trip turn out.)

Modern X-Ray detectors are *VERY* sensitive, and the
doses of X-Rays used are quite low.

Tesha

[Miss Chybil]

17. Another point for English only...

not.

[cobalt1999]

21. Cross country flight: 5 millirems?

Damn, I'm getting the equivalent of a chest xray every week! I wonder how long before the 3rd arm sprouts.

[AllexxisF1]

22. Well shit.

If the dose is low than let me climb through the damn thing instead of taking off my shoes, belt, wallet, watch, money clip and anything else on my person LOL.

[Tight_rope]

27. Sounds like a great idea to me...The should have full- body x-ray

Just lay on the mat and go through the damn machine.

[cobalt1999]

32. I like it.

A moving sidewalk passing through a big ass xray. Make it nice and simple for all us travelers.

[MrCoffee]

25. is that due to the altitude?

cosmic rays and whatnot?

[Xithras]

26. Yep

Space is a pretty radioactive place, and only our nice atmospheric blanket keeps us safe from most of it. The higher you climb in the atmosphere, the less protection you have and the more radiation you receive. The Apollo astronauts absorbed more radiation in their lunar visits than most of us absorb in a lifetime.

[Tight_rope]

24. WTF...Na speaka englas.

[Megahurtz]

28. Holy Crap.

Maybe the lady should have her head examined.:crazy:

[Skidmore]

30. My baby granddaugther was sent through a scanner in Chicago

at whatever building that my daughter went to in order to take care of a traffic ticket last year.

[Catherine Vincent]

31. Poor baby. I hope there's no harmful effects.

Talk about "Total Recall":


I hope the baby doesn't end up like this: