[IP] more on BBC: Therapy 'sets off airport alarms'
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 20, 2006 3:37:16 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: bobr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] BBC: Therapy 'sets off airport alarms'
I got particular joy from the irony of this paragraph: "Patients who
have received
treatment involving radioactive particles are already advised to
avoid public
transport for two weeks so that they do not expose nearby
passengers to
radioactivity."
Please, someone, tell me how that patient avoids exposing him/her
self to
radioactivity?!?
Let me add some comments based on first-hand experience.
Last year, I was diagnosed with a medical condition for which
radioisotpe
therapy was one possible treatment. I had to choose: do nothing (which
meant that I'd continue to experience unpleasant symptoms, and those
might
even get worse), undergo surgery (hardly risk-free itself; potential
problems there include the risks of anesthesia, hospital-acquired
infections, and collateral damage to other organs from the surgery
itself), and a radioisotope. I opted for the latter, not because I like
irradiating myself (and others, though in accordance with the
instructions
I was given I isolated myself for a few days), but because I concluded
that it entailed the least risk -- zero risk wasn't one of my choices.
(Was I right? I don't know; oddly enough, I am experiencing an unusual
side-effect associated with the treatment I selected.)
The issue of setting off alarms isn't new, either. At a shopping mall
restaurant 15 minutes from my house, a patient did set off some
detectors.
I was given a letter explaining my situation; I was supposed to
show it
to any police officers who stopped me. Somewhat to my surprise, I never
had a chance to use it, even though my daily commute takes me through a
major transportation facility and I was in close contact with a
number of
high-ranking current and former government officials (and their
associated
Secret Service agents) just two weeks after treatment. In a way, that's
too bad -- I'm curious to see if they'd have handled it correctly.
Do you
simply believe the letter? Call the phone numbers on the letter itself?
(When in Vancouver for a security conference a few weeks ago, I saw a
T-shirt saying "Do Not Feed the Bears", with a picture of a moose saying
"I'm not a bear -- Trust me!")
--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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