AIRPORT X-RAY DAMAGE (not only to our polymers, but also our democratic freedoms)

In February 2007 we hand-carried a range of new silicone bands to a trade show in Germany, and when we arrived there the bands had been badly damaged and were not useable.

Silicone is known to be a very stable material, and accordingly is used by NASA in space, so it was a very rude shock to the industry indeed as they had never seen this problem before. We hand-carried the product back to Australia where it was examined by a very experienced polymer chemist, and samples were then sent to the US manufacturer of the silicone for testing.

The US company confirmed a reduction of 21% in the physical properties, and the Australian chemist found that the silicone had been sent into “reversion”, which had never been seen before i.e. the polymer strands had been cut (“scissored” as they say) and by baking in an oven, he was able to recover some of the physical properties.

We looked at every possible cause of the damage, including things like exposure to ionizing radiation at high altitude in aircraft, but in the end it was established that logically it could not be anything else other than the airport X-ray machines as;

1. The damage only occurred during air transport.
2. It did not happen all the time, even on the exact same air route, when the product was sent by air freight.

Subsequently we have established that it is basically ALL POLYMERS (most rubbers and plastics) that are exposed to this damage.

With the first trip, where we suffered the initial damage, the only X-ray machines our product saw were the hand luggage ones at the Kingsford Smith (Sydney), Singapore and Heathrow (London) airports. Subsequently, we had the opportunity to put the same product through the machines at Sydney and Singapore many times, and saw no damage.

The problem is that since 9/11 the X-ray machines have been upgraded at airports to detect things like liquid explosives, and in the US, after the Anthrax scare they were (and presumably still are) using very powerful X-ray machines (linear accelerators) to actually kill the Anthrax spores.

We frequently run into travelers who complain how quickly their luggage deteriorates these days, and tend to put it down to rough baggage handling or poor quality manufacturing, but in reality the X-ray machines are the culprit  in most cases, and consequently the manufacturers of cheap luggage must be having a bonanza. Elastic materials are particularly vulnerable due to the high stressing involved with their normal use, and frequent travelers will notice that the life of the elastic in their clothing and luggage is very short indeed.

Governments around the world are becoming aware of this problem and accordingly are going to a great deal of trouble to keep this information from the general public. We believe this is probably due to concern about the damage that potentially could be caused to the airline and tourism industries.

We are sympathetic to this problem, and despise the terrorists as most other civilized people do, but at the end of the day many thousands of Australians have laid down their lives for us, so we can enjoy the democratic freedoms we have, so we do not have to worship the Japanese emperor or Hitler’s descendants. It is a totalitarian-type regime response to deny this information to the general public.

We are an Australian exporter and work with another Australian company who has similar government connections. They have a relationship with ANSTO (Australian National Nuclear Research and Development Organisation) who, after an initial meeting, agreed to do some test work for them, as they have the necessary equipment. Unfortunately, at the same time, we were talking to one of our senior trade commissioners about the problem, who then notified the Australian Federal Police about the situation. After this, ANSTO broke off contact with our partner company, and treated them like they had the plague, refusing to respond to any contact.

Maybe this was just a coincidence??!!

They then headed up a path with our Customs Department for assistance moving goods around the X-ray machines, but after initially appearing it would be successful they similarly broke off contact. It is important to point out that not all X-ray machines are a problem. We have been unable to duplicate the problem with medical X-ray machines, and from discussions with a pure physicist who works with X-ray machines, it would appear that the problem could be due to machines producing unwanted low-frequency X-rays, and not filtering them out properly.

It is quite possible that the X-ray machine manufacturers may have great difficulty producing machines that do all the necessary detection, but do not damage polymers at all. Of course we do not know this, and they have a beautiful protective screen to operate behind called National Security, where all sorts of human frailties can potentially run amok. n the other hand, it may well be quite practical for them to rectify this problem. We just don’t know.

We have been left paying a substantial premium on air freight to go around the X-ray machines and avoid the problem, and to send a single packet of our product to an overseas destination by this means would cost something like AU$400.

We should be mindful too that powerful X-ray machines are progressively being installed at container ports around the world, so in the future people may well wonder why their car tyres don’t last nearly as long as they used to, etc, etc.

At the end of the day, we, as the traveling public have the right to know about the sort of damage that may be incurred from these X-ray machines, and then make considered decisions about what we take with us on the plane, or whether we get on a plane at all.