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Chinese ebay dental x-ray units unsafe - what a surprise!

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mikeselectricstuff

Mon Dec 03 2012, 06:13PM

Registered Member #311 Joined: Sun Mar 12 2006, 08:28PM
Location:
Posts: 253

Dentists have been warned against using a hand-held X-ray machine on patients as it poses a significant health risk.

The cheap imported machine, known as the Tianjie Dental Falcon, exposes users and patients to 10 times the normal level of radiation, increasing their risks of cancer and organ damage

Patrick

Mon Dec 03 2012, 06:55PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

i cant say im suprised... US adminstrators of all corporate and governement flavors cant wait to cut corners, this is what happens when you go cheap...
full radiation emmision, and no shielding!
(shielding and low power features not standard, you must pay extra for the chinese/indian children to assemble those parts.)

Adam Munich

Sun Dec 16 2012, 04:01PM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

Has anyone ever taken one of these things apart?

Conundrum

Mon Dec 17 2012, 06:42PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

From the sound of it, I'd be cautious about even buying a broken unit for parts, there might be toxic heavy metals such as cadmium in the thinner than usual shielding, not to mention the radiation hazard from a working unit.
1355770010 96 FT1630 Xray

nb: added censor bars just in case the Evil Lawyerbots are watching.

This really is horrible, any muppet can go online, order one of these and go happily around Xraying stuff or running a black market dentists surgery etc without any clue how much damage they are doing to themselves and those around them.

Also, aren't there laws against a portable X-ray device being sold online with its own self contained power source? One of these turning on in the post doesen't even bear thinking about..

I am horrified that (a certain popular site) STILL hasn't clamped down on such dangerous devices being sold, everyone who bought one should be contacted by the authorities and asked to surrender it before anyone gets seriously hurt.

klugesmith

Tue Dec 18 2012, 05:56AM

Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716

Let's keep things in perspective.
In rich countries we can afford to drive up costs, mandating health and safety measures that make sense because human health and life have a high dollar value here. Air bags in cars. Low tire pressure warning lights! All manner of clean air and water regulations. Lead-shielded rooms for x-ray examinations.

The balance is different in poor countries. Products like we are talking about could bring the benefits of x-ray technology to hundreds of millions of dental patients. The increased risk from cancer is probably still below the risk of death from a tooth infection. At the town level, money not spent on a fancy Western x-ray machine could go toward better water treatment and sewage disposal.

There had better be heavy metals like cadmium (or, preferably, lead) inside those units. Just like in every pre-RoHS consumer electronic product. Why should that require caution in opening?

And the link in OP mentioned risk of 50,000 volt shock from an unopened unit. I think that's a real stretch. The HV supply is rated at 0.1 mA, and we usually joke about how "cheap Chinese products" are literally overrated. By what plausible fault will a human operator's body (or even fingers) become part of HV circuit? Reminds me of warnings that 4hv-ers stacking MOT's in series create risk of putting high voltage on the mains wires.

Think about public exposure to ionizing radiation in the West, in early 20th century. I don't mean radium-paint workers, but, say, fluoroscopes in shoe stores. Eventually, reduced dose limits effectively banned them, thus avoiding a very small risk.

Ash Small

Tue Dec 18 2012, 01:14PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Conundrum wrote ...

Also, aren't there laws against a portable X-ray device being sold online with its own self contained power source? One of these turning on in the post doesen't even bear thinking about..

They still require plugging into the mains.

"The durable tubehead is vacuum-insulated, and airproof"

Vacuum-insulated AND airproof.....must be good

mikeselectricstuff

Tue Dec 25 2012, 12:51AM

Registered Member #311 Joined: Sun Mar 12 2006, 08:28PM
Location:
Posts: 253

Listings for these now seem to have disappeared from Ebay UK.

mikeselectricstuff

Wed Dec 26 2012, 12:07AM

Registered Member #311 Joined: Sun Mar 12 2006, 08:28PM
Location:
Posts: 253

Just found some info from MHRA that includes some actual exposure figures

Interestingly this was released in July - took the news a while to catch up with it.

Adam Munich

Wed Dec 26 2012, 10:18PM

Registered Member #2893 Joined: Tue Jun 01 2010, 09:25PM
Location: Cali-forn. i. a.
Posts: 2242

30mSv to the body isn't *that* terrible, but 40Sv to the hands is just...

Kassabian

...not good, to say the least.

Steve Conner

Thu Dec 27 2012, 08:11AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

If I read the report right, the unit delivers 7x more radiation to the operator's hands than it does to the X-ray film. Not a terribly good design I would think.

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