marking packages "Film - Do not X-Ray" ?

<p>It comes up from time to time that a customer will ask, when mailing film to us, whether they should mark it "Film, Do Not X-Ray"</p>

<p>I've been inclined to tell people not to mark their package because I feel that is more likely to draw attention to your package and make it more likely to be X-Rayed. I have a hard believing that USPS or other courier services would be putting the well being of your film ahead of their security precautions.</p>

<p>Am I being paranoid?</p>

<p>I don't know if anyone pays attention to such markings. About as pointless as writing CONFIDENTIAL on a postcard.</p>

<p>Or FRAGILE on a package - thats the one that gets treated like a football.</p>

 

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<p>Am I being paranoid?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Of course you are.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to decide whether the paranoia is justified or not.<br /> Bad things happen even to paranoids and they can have real enemies. :(</p>

<p>It's like one of those movie scenes where the two opponents have to guess which chalice has the poison in it after several switches, to wit: "Would they be more likely to x-ray it with, or without, the warning label?"</p>

<p>Back in 2005 or so I called Fed Ex to see if they X-ray'd their boxes as I had to ship not only unexposed but exposed film while on a job. Obviously, I couldn't tolerate the use either way. I was told that they don't x-ray their packages.</p>

<p>I really don't think any of the companies would do this as the "target" for a terrorist is a bit small--a plane or truck of packages that you can't control when or where it could do any real damage. I am sure that they have security measures for suspicious packages and maybe even use dogs or sniffers randomly. The volume they process just wouldn't stand, nor is the risk large enough, to implement high level security steps like X-ray.</p>

Generally, the USPS does not X-ray packages. The only time they do is if there is a specific threat to a specific area, or if you are sending packages inside the DC Beltway. Marking "Do not X-ray" will have no effect either way if they are X-raying packages, though.