Radiation from Japan detected on planes landing at KORD

[ScottM]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityha...ers-set-off-radiation-detectors-at-ohare.html

Passengers arriving this week on a flight from earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged Tokyo set off radiation detectors at O’Hare Airport, city officials acknowledged Thursday.
“We are aware that occurred [Wednesday]. We are working with Customs and Border Protection on this issue,” Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said.
Officials declined to say what happened to the passengers, referring all questions to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Mayor Daley said the situation was “handled ... very professionally’’ by Homeland Security.
“The protection of the person coming off the plane is very important in regards to any radiation — especially within their families and anything else,” Mayor Daley said.
In an e-mail to the Sun-Times, Homeland Security spokesperson Jenny Burke also refused to answer specific questions about the O’Hare incident.
She simply stressed that no aircraft entering the United States has “tested positive for radiation at harmful levels’’ and that “travelers who manifest signs of radiation sickness are referred to health authorities and provided appropriate treatment.’’

I am surprised that they do this test and I guess I am not surprised that the aircraft are picking up radiation from Japan. It does make one really wonder just what is really happening with the radiation leak out of the reactors over there.

 

[rpadula]

So, it's not the planes picking it up, but the people tracking it onto the plane (i.e. on their shoes, etc.)?

 

[Everskyward]

I am surprised that they do this test and I guess I am not surprised that the aircraft are picking up radiation from Japan. It does make one really wonder just what is really happening with the radiation leak out of the reactors over there.

US Customs always shows up with the geiger counter these days. Some inspectors check more thoroughly than others but the first time I've even seen them run it over the people on board was last month in KADS which was before the earthquake in Japan. I was also not aware they checked airline passengers.

 

[wsuffa]

I am surprised that they do this test and I guess I am not surprised that the aircraft are picking up radiation from Japan. It does make one really wonder just what is really happening with the radiation leak out of the reactors over there.

Customs has been doing this for some time. Most US Int'l airline airports have radiation detectors permanently installed in the Customs hall. It's all "anti-terrorism" stuff. There are a number of stories about folks that have tripped them after medical treatments (including implants of radioactive pellets from cancer treatment). Tripping them will earn you a very special secondary inspection.

I think it all started around the time the CBP in Seattle claimed to have caught alleged terrorists crossing the Canadian border.

CBP is part of the same "family" as TSA, but they are generally better.

 

[wsuffa]

From an AP story:

The agency handles more than half a million radiation alarms a year, though many are related to medical procedures.

And the always despicable:

Napolitano said the screening of passengers and cargo is being done "in an exercise of caution."

Doesn't get as much press as the TSA, but....

Link to full article

 

[AdamZ]

So, it's not the planes picking it up, but the people tracking it onto the plane (i.e. on their shoes, etc.)?

I'd think thats more likely than the planes just picking it up flying over but I know nada about this stuff.

 

[Trapper John]

Customs has been doing this for some time. Most US Int'l airline airports have radiation detectors permanently installed in the Customs hall. It's all "anti-terrorism" stuff. There are a number of stories about folks that have tripped them after medical treatments (including implants of radioactive pellets from cancer treatment). Tripping them will earn you a very special secondary inspection.

Security theater at its best. Wait until some poor guy has a residential smoke detector that he plans to put in grandma's hallway ceiling in his baggage and they empty the entire airport.

USA Today will be telling us about the dangers of Americium. "It has 5 times the deadly alpha radiation as lung-cancer causing Radon!1!1!"

 

[Steve]

Security theater at its best. Wait until some poor guy has a residential smoke detector that he plans to put in grandma's hallway ceiling in his baggage and they empty the entire airport.

USA Today will be telling us about the dangers of Americium. "It has 5 times the deadly alpha radiation as lung-cancer causing Radon!1!1!"

How about a Tritium powered watch? by Smith and Wesson, no less...:wink2:

http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Wesson-SWW-357-T-YLW-Executive-Titanium/dp/B0012LAGJ6

 

[Matthew]

Don't forget the inherent hazards of bananas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose

>>
Bananas are radioactive enough to regularly cause false alarms on radiation sensors used to detect possible illegal smuggling of nuclear material at U.S. ports.
<<

 

[steingar]

Geiger counters are sensitive to radiation levels that are nowhere near harmful. You can set one off with the phosphorescent materials in your watch.

 

[bluee]

Customs has been doing this for some time. Most US Int'l airline airports have radiation detectors permanently installed in the Customs hall. It's all "anti-terrorism" stuff. There are a number of stories about folks that have tripped them after medical treatments (including implants of radioactive pellets from cancer treatment). Tripping them will earn you a very special secondary inspection.

I think it all started around the time the CBP in Seattle claimed to have caught alleged terrorists crossing the Canadian border.

CBP is part of the same "family" as TSA, but they are generally better.

Carrying any meat through Customs also will earn you a special secondary inspection.

 

[rpadula]

Don't forget the inherent hazards of bananas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose

>>
Bananas are radioactive enough to regularly cause false alarms on radiation sensors used to detect possible illegal smuggling of nuclear material at U.S. ports.
<<

I don't even want to know where someone would smuggle a contraband banana!

 

[Matthew]

I don't even want to know where someone would smuggle a contraband banana!

Well, now, it wouldn't be a "false" alarm then, would it?

 

[fgcason]

Don't forget the inherent hazards of bananas:

I have FIVE of those deadly radioactive things on my counter.

It does make one really wonder just what is really happening with the radiation leak out of the reactors over there.

Chernobyl times 10?
Since they can detect bananas, most if not all of the radiation probably came from the airplane being at FL300+ for multiple hours.

 

[mikea]

Security theater at its best. Wait until some poor guy has a residential smoke detector that he plans to put in grandma's hallway ceiling in his baggage and they empty the entire airport."

No problem. They'll just ban carry smoke detectors. It would be ironic if the smoke detectors in teh ariliner lavs are ionization detectors with radioactive Americuim in them.

Anyway, the "rest of the story" in this case is that the jet was carrying some medical equipment as cargo. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0318-airport-radiation--20110317,0,901379.story That's just what they want you to believe.

 

[wsuffa]

I don't even want to know where someone would smuggle a contraband banana!

Pretty much anywhere. It's an agricultural product and any agricultural products must be declared at Customs. So if you have it in your carry-on...

Of course, if it's a really special banana, you may wish to consider other options to smuggle it in...

 

[ScottM]

I don't even want to know where someone would smuggle a contraband banana!

My backpack was one place.

I was at in meetings in Korea and would regularly grab several bananas off of the breakfast buffet for snacks later in the day. I forgot I had a couple in there when I flew home. I remembered it just as I was passing the 'dump your fruit here' containers.

 

[Doggtyred]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityha...ers-set-off-radiation-detectors-at-ohare.html




I am surprised that they do this test and I guess I am not surprised that the aircraft are picking up radiation from Japan. It does make one really wonder just what is really happening with the radiation leak out of the reactors over there.

Most of what you are dealing with is alpha and beta particles. These are relatively low powered, and get deposited on clothing and skin. Unless you internalize (Ingest, breathe in, eat) contaminants this constitutes low exposure.

The guys at the plant and flying over in helicopters making airdrops are getting exposed to Gamma radiation (which is electromagnetic energy). This is a much more credible threat, but unless you've got a source in your pocket or luggage, unlikely to be a factor at Ohare... or any other domestic port..

 

[woodstock]

What is interesting about food is that you cannot smuggle certain things in, but if you ate the durn thing within the past day you are smuggling it in anyway.

 

[Greg Bockelman]

What is interesting about food is that you cannot smuggle certain things in, but if you ate the durn thing within the past day you are smuggling it in anyway.

You really think that is the same thing?

 

[Cap'n Jack]

What is interesting about food is that you cannot smuggle certain things in, but if you ate the durn thing within the past day you are smuggling it in anyway.

I'm pretty sure that eating the "certain things" pretty much kills the insects, fungi, and other things on the fruit that are the real concern to us.

Customs and Agriculture wasn't concerned about Scott's banana he brought back, but rather the Panama disease #4 and Black Sigatoka fungus it might have been carrying. If he ate the banana prior to the checkpoint, the diseases wouldn't survive the transit through his gut.

 

[wabower]

In that case it's amazing that some of us have been able to travel at all for all these years.

Carrying any meat through Customs also will earn you a special secondary inspection.

 

[wsuffa]

I'm pretty sure that eating the "certain things" pretty much kills the insects, fungi, and other things on the fruit that are the real concern to us.

Customs and Agriculture wasn't concerned about Scott's banana he brought back, but rather the Panama disease #4 and Black Sigatoka fungus it might have been carrying. If he ate the banana prior to the checkpoint, the diseases wouldn't survive the transit through his gut.

Exactly.

 

[woodstock]

You really think that is the same thing?

Fruit have seeds...

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Fruit have seeds...

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Fruit have seeds...

How many types of fruit do you eat with the seeds? Strawberries, berries from the Rubus genus, and tomatoes, maybe. Of these, are the seeds viable after being eaten? Even so, note my post #21 above. I'm also pretty sure people aren't picking out the seeds they ate after their trip, so they end up in a septic system or water treatment plant.

 

[Doggtyred]

How many types of fruit do you eat with the seeds? Strawberries, berries from the Rubus genus, and tomatoes, maybe. Of these, are the seeds viable after being eaten?

How do you think plants grow on previously deserted islands... one mechanism involves birds and poop. Birds eat seeds. Birds fly there and birds poop there, and the seeds in the poop grow to be a plant...

 

[wsuffa]

How do you think plants grow on previously deserted islands... one mechanism involves birds and poop. Birds eat seeds. Birds fly there and birds poop there, and the seeds in the poop grow to be a plant...

Alert Customs at the Canadian & Mexican borders! Can't let those terrorist birds bring seeds into the US!

 

[woodstock]

Do a search on seeds on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feces

Food may sometimes make an appearance in the feces. Common undigested foods found in human feces are seeds, nuts, corn and beans, mainly because of their high dietary fiber content.

 

[ScottM]

How do you think plants grow on previously deserted islands... one mechanism involves birds and poop. Birds eat seeds. Birds fly there and birds poop there, and the seeds in the poop grow to be a plant...

Fish eggs pass through bird digestive systems too. That is how some fish mysteriously appear in lakes.

 

[ScottM]

How many types of fruit do you eat with the seeds? Strawberries, berries from the Rubus genus, and tomatoes, maybe. Of these, are the seeds viable after being eaten? Even so, note my post #21 above. I'm also pretty sure people aren't picking out the seeds they ate after their trip, so they end up in a septic system or water treatment plant.

If they are solid and the waste goes to a treatment plant it is seperated from the water and then usually thrown in a landfill where it could easily germinate and then grow.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

How do you think plants grow on previously deserted islands... one mechanism involves birds and poop. Birds eat seeds. Birds fly there and birds poop there, and the seeds in the poop grow to be a plant...

Do a search on seeds on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feces

Fish eggs pass through bird digestive systems too. That is how some fish mysteriously appear in lakes.

I do know that some seeds can pass through a digestive system.


My points are:

• Humans don't eat many seeds that survive passage through their digestive system- I invite you to name those that do. By this, I mean that you can plant them and the seed will sprout and grow into a plant. If the seed was killed in your gut, it isn't a problem now, is it?
• Those seeds that do survive passage through the digestive system generally fail to sprout because they end up in a cess pool or water treatment plant in this country. Or do you scatter your feces around the neighborhood?
• We generally don't care about the food plant, but rather the parasites that we might pass on to our food plants. We do care about plants that become weeds (knapweed, kudzu, anyone?) but these generally are not food plants.
• Who picks through their feces to get the seeds that they smuggled in? Woodstock?
• Very few plant parasites survive passage through our guts.

That's why customs & Ag don't care about what you ate. If you read my posts, you'll see I made these points, except the comment about the weed plants.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

If they are solid and the waste goes to a treatment plant it is seperated from the water and then usually thrown in a landfill where it could easily germinate and then grow.

How often does it happen? Name examples.

 

[Trapper John]

If they are solid and the waste goes to a treatment plant it is seperated from the water and then usually thrown in a landfill where it could easily germinate and then grow.

I'd be pretty surprised if a seed could survive all of the processes that waste goes through in a treatment plant. Especially the sludge dryer.

 

[woodstock]

[*]Who picks through their feces to get the seeds that they smuggled in? Woodstock?
.

I realize you are feeling defensive, but, you're making your points personal - highly inappropriate.

 

[rpadula]

Once again, this thread proves people will argue about anything on the internet.

 

[wsuffa]

Once again, this thread proves people will argue about anything on the internet.

Pretty crappy, no?

 

[Everskyward]

After a number of discussions with Customs inspectors about food from Canada I have figured out that they don't give a crap (pun intended) about seeds unless you are trying to smuggle 100 lbs of seeds for import. It's the USDA who cares about the fruits and vegetables. They just don't have enough inspectors so they delegate the authority to Customs.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I realize you are feeling defensive, but, you're making your points personal - highly inappropriate.

Who bought up the point of smuggling seeds that were eaten? Either it was a ridiculous argument or someone is actually smuggling agricultural products in this fashion. I would hope the person that made this argument would be able to provide citations where this actually happened.

 

[woodstock]

Who bought up the point of smuggling seeds that were eaten? Either it was a ridiculous argument or someone is actually smuggling agricultural products in this fashion. I would hope the person that made this argument would be able to provide citations where this actually happened.

Classy reply, thanks.