Posted on 05/11/2012 8:44:35 AM PDT by null and void
Mike Apatow, of Milford, poses at Stratford Fire Station, Company 2, in Stratford, Conn. May 10th, 2012, where he works as firefighter. Apatow, who had a radioactive stress test Wednesday, was pulled over later in the day, in Newtown, by a state police trooper after a radioactivity detector in the trooper's car was set off when Apatow passed. The detectors are used to help identify potential terror threats. Apatow was not on duty at the time. Photo: Ned Gerard / Connecticut Post
Mike Apatow was minding his own business Wednesday, driving to an appointment for work in Washington Depot when a state police car appeared suddenly and signaled for the Milford resident to pull over.
Apatow, 42, was entering Interstate 84 in Newtown when the cruiser appeared, and he had no idea what he'd done to merit police attention. It turns out he didn't do anything.
But earlier that day, Apatow, who'd experienced a recent spike in his blood pressure, had a nuclear stress test at Cardiology Associates of Fairfield County in Trumbull. In the test, a small amount of a radioactive material is injected into the veins and used to help track blood flow to the heart.
Though the amount of radioactive material used in the test is relatively low -- equal to a few X-rays or a diagnostic CT scan -- it was enough to set off a radioactivity detector in the state police car. The detectors are used to help identify potential terror threats.
"I asked the officer `What seems to be the problem?' " Apatow said. "He said `You've been flagged as a radioactive car.' "
Apatow's doctor had given him a document attesting that he'd had a medical procedure involving a small amount of radioactive material that he handed to the officer. A Stratford firefighter, Apatow was more curious than annoyed by the incident.
"I had no idea the police even had devices like that," he said. "I imagined it being like a cartoon -- like I'm driving down the street and my car was glowing."
State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance confirmed that many of the state police cars have the radioactivity detectors. "It's part of our homeland security operations here," Vance said. "It's just another layer of public safety that we have in this state."
Though the goal of the detectors is to alert police to motorists who might be carrying hazardous materials, cases like Apatow's happen from time to time.
"They're very sensitive," Vance said of the detectors.
Apatow had the stress test after feeling ill while working at the Fire Department. He took his blood pressure and found it was 180 over 110 -- much higher than the 120 over 70 reading he usually gets. He attributed the spike to a variety of potential factors, including a lack of sleep. On Thursday, after visiting his doctors again, he was cleared for duty.
Dr. Gilead Lancaster, president of the Connecticut chapter of the American College of Cardiologists, said Apatow's experience with the stress test isn't as rare as some might think. Lancaster, also director of non-invasive cardiology at Bridgeport Hospital, said a colleague knew of an incident in which a patient was traveling by plane the day after a stress test and set off alarms in the airport. "It's definitely known that this happens, and we do let patients know that there is a chance that they could be picked up," he said.
He said patients are also often told to avoid close contact with family immediately following the stress test.
Apatow said his doctors told him not to go within 10 feet of his infant son within 24 hours of the test. Despite this, Lancaster said the amount of radioactive material used in the stress is unlikely to be harmful to the patient. "Any amount of radiation is harmful, but nobody has yet shown that this level of radiation has been of significant harm, especially to adults," he said.
Dr. Lawrence Schek, chief medical officer and chairman of cardiology at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, said facilities that perform these tests have to be certified and are meticulous about safety.
"There's very strict criteria in place," he said.
Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Radioactive-man-Milford-resident-pulled-over-by-3549631.php#ixzz1uZm5HTaX
Something about this doesn’t make sense.
’ “It’s part of our homeland security operations here,” Vance said. “It’s just another layer of public safety that we have in this state.”’
Too bad that HLS thing doesn’t pertain to our borders. Guess its too much to ask.
It’s just a bit scary (for him) that his radioactivity was strong enough to be picked up by a police car.
makes you wonder what other stuff they pickup on and don’t tell us
Uh-huh. I expect to be hearing that phrase a lot more often. Especially after November.
Now if we can just get a spider to bite him, he won’t need to use a ladder any more!
Ask al baby...
If he was radioactive, shouldn’t he be like fifty-feet tall by now?
There is a song in this... Radio-active man!
RADIOACTIVE PROFILING. Think he was an Arab or sump’n. Sue.
I came back from downrange one day, and called IT. “Hey, my laptop is acting funny.”
They came and picked it up, and about an hour later, I got a phone call. “Where have you been with this thing?”
“Out on the range.”
“What range?”
“The nuclear range.”
Later that day, they brought me a new one.
“Hey now, what happened to the old one?”
“EOD took it.”
the metal in bills can be detected when enough are stacked together. they’ll get the amount you’re carrying within a couple hundred dollars
the RFID tags in your tires can be read from 20 yds
obviously a plate reader that does OCR and looks up the information immediately
dash cams gather facial recognition data as you pass
a laser could be easily added to allow the cop to listen to any car he can focus it on
cellphone data and probably the ability to listen
wifi war driving to pick up open nets (ala google street cam)
just Dam# I am going to huddle in my house out of site /s
then you probably don’t want to read this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2882491/posts?page=15#15
If I am a terrorist, I now know EXACTLY how much shielding I need to be able to ship a cheap and easily-made gun-assembly nuclear weapon ANYWHERE in the US, completely avoiding the detectors!
Bring some more lead ingots over here, Achmed! Melt and pour!
if they (.GOV) really wants to track my movements they are going to no matter hwat I like. got my cell on right now and I am at my computer..
"...many of the state police cars have the radioactivity detectors. "It's part of our homeland security operations here," Vance said. "It's just another layer of public safety that we have in this state."
Article, then # 13.
He should have kept his mouth shut; this shouldn't be publicized.
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