Newsgroups: sci.electronics.misc
Subject: Re: Customs scanner can damage electronic organizer - is that true?
References: <[email protected]>
Hole Basso  writes:

> I�{�m dummy for electronics, so hopefully somebody can help me.
> I am planing to "export" dozen of electronic organizers, I will
> use an airplane for a trip.
> They told me in the store that Customs scan, because of use of
> infrared light, can wipe out memory from electronic organizer
> (and from Palm Pilot also).

Customs scan do not use infrared light for scanning.

And infrared light does not cause wipe out of the memory, infrared
is just heat radiation which would jus heat that equipment if
it would be exposed to stron infrated radiation. 

So the sentence "because of use of
> infrared light, can wipe out memory from electronic organizer"
is completely nonsense.

To wipe out memory chip, you need ultraviolet light and that would
needed to be exposed to the chip itself quite stongly for some time.
If the equipment is enclosed inside case and chips are in normal
black plastic package (not the ceramic one with quarz glass window
like in UV-erasable eproms), then UV is not a problem either.

The customs and check-in security checks use X-radiation,
which in large does can wipe out memory and damage films.
All properly set up equipments in this kind of use have
so low amounts of X-radiation in use so that they do not
damage films, equipments or cause dnager to the people standing
narby those equipments.

-- 
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at 
http://www.epanorama.net/