Are airport security machines ruining Amazon Kindles?

Ån e-book reader such as the Amazon Kindle can be quite convenient for frequent air travelers. But some European jet-setters are reporting that run-ins with airport X-ray machines are killing their Kindles.

According to the UK's Telegraph newspaper, Kindle owners have said their e-book readers produced blank screens and were nonfunctional after passing through the X-ray machines at European airports.

Amazon has replaced users' dead Kindles, and the company stresses that airport security scanners aren't to blame. An Amazon spokesman told the Telegraph:

Many Kindle users travel by air, and their Kindles are screened by airport security every day without issue.

Some technical experts believe static electricity, which may be created by the X-ray machines' rubber conveyor belts, might be the cause of some traveling Kindles' demise. Interestingly, there have been no reports of similar traveling problems with other e-readers, such as the Barnes & Noble Nook, which use the same e-ink technology.

Amazon Kindles 'damaged by airport scanners' [The Telegraph]
Amazon Kindle May Be Damaged By Airport Scanners [Gizmodo]

—Paul Eng