Nuclear medicine can render people radioactive enough to trigger false security alarms at airports for up to a month, an article in the UK's Lancet Medical Journal warns.

The Lancet piece highlights the case of a 55-year-old commercial pilot referred for cardiac investigation. Doctors carried out a scan using a radioisotope of the element thallium. Two days after the scan the patient traveled to Moscow as a crew member.

While passing through customs, the radiation detector alarms were triggered, and the patient was detained for questioning. After extensive interrogation, he was released, but experienced the same problem at the same airport four days later.
Eventually the airport security officials gave him a card to carry while traveling that explained his scan was to blame.

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