Medical Scans Can Set Off Airport Security Alarms

Oooopsssss, you are not a terrorist, just someone with a recent medical scan. The BBC has the story.

Over 18 million scans using radioactive versions of common elements are carried out in the UK each year.

They include tests of the thyroid gland, bone, and blood flow to the heart muscle.

Professor Richard Underwood, of London’s Royal Brompton Hospital, said the side effects should be made clear.

Patient information cards could lessen the impact of such false alarms and avoid unnecessary interrogations by airport security personnel Professor Richard Underwood

He called for patients to be issued with standard information cards about their scan if it made use of radioisotopes.

The Lancet piece highlights the case of a 55-year-old commercial pilot referred for cardiac investigation.

Doctors carried out a scan using a radioisotope of the element thallium.

Two days after the scan the patient travelled to Moscow as a crew member.

While passing through customs, the radiation detector alarms were triggered, and the patient was detained for questioning.

After extensive interrogation, he was released, but experienced the same problem at the same airport four days later.

Eventually the airport security officials gave him a card to carry while travelling that explained his scan was to blame.

So, what are you waiting for……….GET the CARD.