The diplomatic row some time ago issuing from Russia’s refusal to extradite to Britain former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy, who allegedly murdered fellow Russian Alexander Litvinenko with a dose of polonium-210 in London in November, 2006, leaving a lethal radioactive trail in restaurants, hotels and planes, recalls to mind a letter I received from a reader, a ‘nuclear inspector’ with the European Commission in Luxembourg, who claims his baggage had received ‘dangerous levels’ of X-rays during a connection at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.
Peter (not his real name) writes: ‘My flight from Marseille to Luxembourg (via Paris CDG) arrived with no baggage, despite a three-hour layover in Paris. When it finally caught up with me, I found that my Nuclear Electronic Dosimeter inside was emitting an alarm tone. When it was electronically read at my office, it transpired that the baggage had received an X-ray does of 0.326 mSv (milli Sievert) - very high when you consider that a person is normally allowed a maximum 2mSv a year! X-ray machines also produce doses of “radio activity.”‘
‘I don’t know what the security people did with my baggage in Paris,’ Peter adds, ‘but it is important to advise other travelers that such high doses of radiation will destroy unexposed film or other sensitive materials and may even cause trouble for electronic circuits, and flash cards, or memory sticks. My bags are never locked so they can be opened and checked by security, who clearly refer to use electronic X-ray systems to the maximum. Airports should do more to control security staff who, in my case, must have left the machine on for an inordinate amount of time.’
A disturbing new angle in surviving the airport experience.