Scrap x-rays and Dentists

Thought I would share some info.

Medical/dental offices by the year 2014 will be required to be fully digital. Because of this offices are in scramble mode to scan and digitize charts. Lately, companies that destroy sensitive data are not allowing x-rays to be included for shred as it contaminates the paper.

I had a dental office literally give me boxes of their old x-rays. Only thing I had to promise was that they were going to be destroyed. After removing the paper and plastic mounts it added up to about 80 pounds worth. For security sake I ran the x-rays through my paper shredder and gave the office a picture of the shredded mess. Took it to a yard in Clermont Florida that paid 2 bucks a pound.


Happy scrapping!

Cheers,
Tom

I work in a dental office. How did you find someone to pay for old x-rays?

Old x-rays are worth money, they have silver in them.

First, it will not be mandatory to be digital.

Second, the doctor should sell xrays to a certified company. There are privacy laws.

Hi all, could someone here with X-Ray knowledge plese enlighten the rest of us regarding x-rays??.. What contains the silver, the plastic part you put to a light to see your bones or is it something else??

I have recycled some, or rather sold them to be recycled, so i dont know a lot. Heres what i found at ehow.com:

Used X-rays are made of a polyester film coated in emulsion layers made of gelatin and contain silver. All X-ray film contains about 2 percent of its weight in silver after processing. Extracting silver from X-rays can be done in several ways and helps offset Disposal costs.

Anyway they sell for decent money in Michigan.

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Originally Posted by jassiejames

Hi all, could someone here with X-Ray knowledge plese enlighten the rest of us regarding x-rays??.. What contains the silver, the plastic part you put to a light to see your bones or is it something else??

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It's the film itself.

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Originally Posted by jbravo54

First, it will not be mandatory to be digital.

Second, the doctor should sell xrays to a certified company. There are privacy laws.

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Actually the X-rays we've done had no patient information on them. Is that typical?

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Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

Actually the X-rays we've done had no patient information on them. Is that typical?

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The patient info is usually written on the cardboard frame. If they removed them from the frame there wouldn't be anyway to go back and link the film to the patient.

BTW way back when printing was still using film we saved all of our scrap film and sold it to the traveling scrap man. We also ran electroplate silver recovery units to pull the suspended silver from the fix chemicals. Dirty nasty job to clean those electro plates. We scraped the soft silver into plastic jugs. Then we sold it as 99% fine to the scrap guy. Then the owner went and played poker with the cash.

http://www.edocscan.com/emr-mandate-2014

might be worth taking this info to dentist offices and such in the next couple

It's the black part of the X ray that contains the silver. The more black on the xray, the more silver.

We buy xray in Bulk also!

Mrbillbus is right, thiere is no patient info on the x-ray itself it is ether on the border of the film or on a seprate piece of paper. When I drove for a courier service I had to deliver a lot of x-rays. And they are heavy, it wouldn't take much to get 100 lbs.

A pound of paper is 2 1/2 inch thick.
Guessing a pound of x-rays would be 1/2 inch thick.
We have a account that does all the rebuilds on x-ray room all over Ontario. We have a good working relationship. How would you approach?
Scott

Are Vet clinics going to phase out the old Xray films etc too, just interested, theres probably just as many Xrays done there as hospitals, I guess.

Thanks for the info, learn something new everyday.

Divapickers, if I remember right from when I use to deliver x-rays to dr. offices, x-rays are twice as big as a sheet of paper, about 24"x 18" and twice as thick at least. I would say about 6-8 x-rays to a lbs. they are heavy. This is just a guess.

I worked for a company in Aston Pa. that recovered and refined the silver from xrays. I started out pulling film and putting it in barrels 200# in each. From there it went to a washing process. It was drained into storage tanks.The silver would settle on the bottom, which was a sludge. Sludge was removed and put in big pans. Pans went to a bakeo. When all the moisture was cooked off the ash was sent to the furnace. I eventually ran two furnaces. Brinks came every day to pick up the .999 bars of silver. Took two men per bar to pick up. Point is lot of silver in xrays.

I am not trying to be an a$$ here but certified can mean they applied for a vendors license, in some states you don't even have to do that to be considered certified. He shredded them which is completely compliant for all privacy laws.

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Originally Posted by diggydiggy

I am not trying to be an a$$ here but certified can mean they applied for a vendors license, in some states you don't even have to do that to be considered certified. He shredded them which is completely compliant for all privacy laws.

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I posted on this old thread cause I noticed that it had gotten a little off topic from the op's post. Which was that there is silver in old xrays. That said we use to get xrays in the cardboard covers ,loose with stickers on them with patients information, and some with no information. The cardboard was shreaded and every thing else went into the wash. After the film was washed the plastic came out clear. Their was never and problem with anything concerning hippa. And I processed 100's of gaylord boxes of xrays. Of coarse the epa was constantly watching.

Do you know Dr.Bob/?



odat

If your referring to the gentleman that holds the patent on the process, than yes I do. We all just called him Doc. Nice guy. Had a vault for his lab. How do you know him? If it's the same guy.