From www.geeksugar.com;
Kindles and Tablets at TSA Checkpoints
Why You Shouldn't Take Your Kindle Fire Out of Your Bag at TSA Checkpoints
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Kristy Korcz / NOVEMBER 21, 2011 9:45 AM / Read More: Travel, Geek Tip, Kindle Fire
The Kindle Fire (and Nook Tablet, for that matter) are perfect travel companions. They store your books, movies, music, and apps, and run on the plane's WiFi so you could even browse the web at 30,000 feet. But a few users are reporting that their new Kindle Fires are being damaged after going through X-ray machines at airport TSA checkpoints. While the X-ray machine isn't exactly to blame, according to an expert, it can be a factor.
Professor Daping Chu, Chairman of the University of Cambridge centre for Advanced Photonics, says that static electricity is likely the culprit . He says:
"I don’t think the radiation used in an airport scanner would ever be strong enough to damage an electronic ink display. . . . But you can get a buildup of static inside these machines, caused by the rubber belt rubbing. If that charge were to pass through a Kindle, it’s conceivable that it could damage the screen. . . . A static charge from an airport scanner could be 100 volts or more. That could permanently stick the particles to the screen.”
Kindles, tablets, laptops, cameras, and thousands of other devices pass through airport X-ray machines every day, but one way to be totally sure your new Kindle Fire won't be damaged due to static electricity is to leave it in your bag when going through TSA checkpoints. Any electronic items smaller than a 13-inch laptop doesn't need to be removed from your bag when going through the X-ray machine anyway, so this should make your trip move that much smoother.
Source: Getty
More Posts From Kristy Korcz
Since the belts or at least the effects of a rubber belt are roughly the same whether they are on a treadmill or a TSA x-ray machine, I thought it would be helpful to warn tablet or kindle users about the possible danger to our precious electronic gadgets.
And while they seem to be focusing on the deleterious effects such a static charge might have on e-ink screens, which would not as readily affect an LCD screen (they are two completely different things) it is never good to have a random extra electrical charge in any circuitry, and such a random extra electrical charge will cause damage, albeit at a very slow rate.
A very slow rate= anywhere from minutes to years, with no way to say exactly unless we were able to see the weaknesses of each electrical component at a molecular level + the exact static charge + what voltage the circuit was designed to handle.
The bottom line; using your tablet on your treadmill probably won't hurt it, but it could.
On the other hand, since the article refers to tablets in direct contact with that statically charged belt, and unless you dropped yours on the walk belt this is not the same thing, so if you want to use your laptop, kindle, or tablet, whether ipad or android, I'd say it's fairly safe, as long as the ground circuit of your treadmill is in good condition.
Of course, everything breaks, even and including something as simple as a ground circuit, and that is assuming whoever assembled it in the first place remembered to install the ground circuit and did it correctly, so don't forget to have us service your treadmill yearly to keep it in good running order, and safe for your electronics.
If more information about tablets and treadmills indicates a specific danger, we will of course keep you apprised via text message or this blog, so subscribe or check back.
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