Insulin & airport X ray machines

[borofergie]

I was just checking on the Gatwick Airport website and it just says: ''if you are concerned about the effects of the temperature in the aircraft hold on your medication, you should speak with your airline''......which doesn't give a lot away!

If it was me, I'd rather be safe than sorry and keep my medical supplies on me (especially since much bigger risk is that of your luggage being lost).

 

[noblehead]

If it was me, I'd rather be safe than sorry and keep my medical supplies on me (especially since much bigger risk is that of your luggage being lost).

Yes that is my logic also having had luggage lost in the past.

 

[sue96]

My insulin was in hand luggage which passed thru the x-ray machine. I had thought the hold would be too cold. Completely mystified why my insulin has lost its strength. Contacted manufacturer who says insulin should be unaffected by airport xray machines. Am upping the dose dramatically and still not got to a point where I am back in control...

 

[borofergie]

My insulin was in hand luggage which passed thru the x-ray machine. I had thought the hold would be too cold. Completely mystified why my insulin has lost its strength. Contacted manufacturer who says insulin should be unaffected by airport xray machines. Am upping the dose dramatically and still not got to a point where I am back in control...

I'm sceptical that airport x-ray machines would have any effect on insulin.

It wouldn't have made any difference if you'd have checked your baggage, as they x-ray hold luggage too..

 

[sue96]

I was sceptical too, but something has definitely happened to make me need way more insulin than before I travelled. Nothing else is different.

 

[Raph]

Insulin is exposed to more radiation during the flight than it is exposed to passing through the x-ray machine. Each scan emits less than 1/1,000 of the radiation given off in a standard chest X-ray, or the equivalent of two minutes of a high-altitude flight.
Therefore, your insulin being left in the tunnel whilst an image is being double checked has the same effect as 2 minutes in the air.

Certainly many phials of insulin pass through airport x-ray scanners each day unharmed however my and sue96's identical experiences suggest some of them, perhaps through a malfunction, do and have damaged insulin. Mine was ruined twice at security before two short European flights and whilst I concede that prolonged high altitude radiation is significant I have taken many flights from the UK to islands in the South Pacific - avoiding the airport X-ray - with little discernible reduction in insulin strength. The fact that a small number of airport machines may denature the medication makes it best to request manual inspection and avoid a dangerous and pointless game of Russian roulette.
It is irksome that the regulations here insist on driving insulin through those machines when a manual check with explosive sensitive swabs would better serve the passengers' and diabetics' interests.

Raph