With the news that full-body scanners maybe coming soon to an airport near you, many are wondering if the scanners are safe. The scanners are designed to find weapons or materials, including plastics and powders that may be strapped to the body that a metal detector cannot find.
The controversy is that the scanners use radiation, a millimeter wave technology, while other scanners being installed in U.S. airports use backscatter technology. With the millimeter wave scanner, extremely high-frequency radio waves pass over the body and the energy reflected off the body generates a three-dimensional image.
L-3 Communications, the makers of one of the devices says the scanners are safe because they use non-ionizing radiation, the same emitted by X-rays and the ultraviolet light of the sun. That form of radiation, with prolonged exposure, can disrupt DNA and cause tissue damage.
But everyday exposure emits the smallest amount of energy, even lower than your cellphone or TV remote. So even if the scanners are safe, some worry about the cumulative effects of the scanners, especially for those who fly often. They are already being exposed to cosmic radiation when flying 40,000 feet.
With 40 machines currently being used at 19 airports domestically and an additional 300 machines in use at U.S. airports by 2011, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, reports there are several groups of individuals who are significantly more sensitive to ionizing radiation than the average person and may need special consideration.
They include infants and children, individuals with genetically based hypersensitivity to ionizing radiation, and the developing embryo or fetus in a pregnant woman. Three to five percent of the population may be more sensitive to ionizing radiation. #
