PVC showing up in Xrays

[K40T1C]

Ok so ive only been on this forum about a month and already ive seen dozens of people warning ppl about how pvc doesnt show up in xrays so it will be hard for the doctor to find

The main person that seems to mention this is spudshot... here are just a few examples

YOU WILL KILL YOURSELF USING THAT!!!! do not ever try that, or anything including oxygen and/or acetylene, stick to propane or mapp gas anything more powerful will likely detonate your chamber, and PVC doesnt show up on and X-ray.......

dont forget the x ray machine cant see pvc shards, hope the doc can get em all out!

anyways... what i want to know is what information do you have to back upthis claim

[PCGUY]

Well it's plastic... only metals and bones show up on xrays I believe.

[cardinals08]

no, flesh shows up on X-Rays, so does crap, didnt you see that Jackass episode where bam margera broke his @ss, and his winky and crap inside him showed up. and also you can see your whole body in the X-Ray, it just doesnt show up well

[Lucas_Pukas]

I was a Radiology Technician for an internship for a couple years. PVC will more than likely show up (havent personally seen it). It won't be as defined as say metal or bone, it will be fuzzy and gray. Doctor's diagnose pneumonia with x-rays...because the fluid in your lungs is more dense than the lungs thenselves. The same goes for PVC. It is more dense than say skin, fat, muscle etc so it will "absorb" more of the radiation. Similar concept is used in radar, but the waves bounce back to the cop...rather than shooting through the body and being absorbed on the x-ray film.

[CS]

I always thought it would in the back of my head, but never thought I was right because of what others said. I was gonna say flesh shows up and its less dense then PVC, but thought maybe there was some miracle proprty of PVC. Now that I think about it, it was proably started by some mod way back when simply trying to scare noobs from making "sloppy" cannons and to focus on safty. Intresting question I did some quick googling and didnt find anything I was looking for on the subject.

[PCGUY]

Humm... I guess I was thinking of cartoon style xrays .

[jrrdw]

how about glass? and why you gotta wear that cold lead apron, don't the radiation bounce around?

i don't know of any way to hide from the radiation, like a bomb type of applacation

different kinds???

[boilingleadbath]

I'v been doing some research with google.
Untill I find some numbers, here are some quotes:

Certain plastics, in particular PVC, can be detected in most products.
-X-Ray Inspection machien provider

X-rays can be used to seperate PVC from other plastics.
-automated recycling machein provider

Yeah, I'v gone through 160 results. I'm stopping.

Oh, and just out of intrerest: I found a <a href="http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:x- ... 1">page</a> that has a report written by one Hall, David on "Sink breakage during shipping"

[crazy jap]

im not sure if pvc will show up in an x-ray cuz i havent seen it. but i can say that i know it will show up in an mri. back when the claymore mine was originally introduced. some of our enimies made copy cat mines. using not metal bb's but plastic beads. making them very difficult to remove. i do know of cases of doctors having to probe for them. but thanks to the innovation of battlefield medicine and the mri. the probing is just about gone

[CS]

Just to solve this problem, next time I go to the doctors for a X-ray I will be sure to take a peice of PVC with me. If its the denist doing the X-ray I will put it in my mouth. lol. I would ask the X-ray technicain, but proably think im crazy. BLB thanks for the quotes, but why and how was this belief started? Proably a misunderstanding that grew in to a belief.

[crazy jap]

thanks for volunteering ur body for science the world salutes you

[jrrdw]

yeaaaaa we have a volenter guini pig, what else can we get you to do in the name of science?

i know try hiden that clear pvc - help me out guys what else can we come up with i'm drawing a blank rite now!

[K40T1C]

i expect that someone just started claiming it to scare ppl from making a poorly built cannon and beiong unsafe... but the thing is... the mere thought of having chunks of plastic in ur body will deter most ppl so there is realy no need for mentioning xraying

[crazy jap]

well lets see people telling me that a cannon is gonna blow up in my face using just regular aresols is bullshit. ill tell u from personal experience that unless u are using a high power fuel like acetylene and o2. ur not gonna light ur ass up. ive used propane and never had a cannon explode let alone crack. as u said its a little off about the myths but i thought id state that for the record. but that doesnt mean dont be safe by all means exercise more caution than i do

[CS]

ATTENTION LAST FOUR POSTERS:
Have any of you heard of the "shift" key? Please capatalize!

Well I went to the denists yesterday and oddly enough they were going to take a X ray. Just in the case that this did happen I had a fractured peice of PVC with me. Just before she went around the corner I started to put the peice of PVC in my mouth, then she pops her head around the corner and asked what I had in my hand. I simply said "nothing" and acted as if I was only scratching my face with it. I proably wouldnt have been able to see it anyways because there was this black plastic peice that they put in your mouth, which I assumes stops the Xray. Im pretty sure its not the plastic rather something incased within the plastic casing. So I almost had the mystery solved buy wasnt able to...

If anyone has a cast please try slipping a peice of PVC into your cast before Xray. I think next time Ill have the balls just to ask them to take a Xray of it (its all digital so I dont think its that much...).