Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Just about everyone agrees that passenger safety is more highly valued than cheap fares, whether they are cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages. Now however questions are being raised whether body scanners that emit radiation may be more dangerous than the increased detection they afford security personnel.

Within the next two years all airport magnetometer metal detectors are supposed to be replaced by electronic body scanner machines at all 2,200 security checkpoints in all 450 commercial airports in the United States.

Currently there are two types of body scanners being purchased and deployed in U.S. airports:

• 250 backscatter machines have been purchased which scan body surfaces using an ultra low dose of X-ray radiation.

• 242 other body scan machines have been purchased that use millimeter wave technology, which does not emit radiation, using harmless radio waves instead.

Both machines cost approximately $150,000 each.

According to the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) “a single scan using backscatter technology produces exposure equivalent to two minutes of flying on an airplane,” where slightly higher levels of radiation is common. Opponents to this technology claim that repeated low dose exposure to radiation at airport checkpoints is a cumulative risk and that impartial research has yet to demonstrate the safety of backscatter technology.

A group of Republican Senators recently encouraged the TSA to consider a type of body imaging called auto-detection technology used at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. This technology reveals threatening objects on a traveler without showing naked body images and avoids exposing passengers to radiation.

One has to wonder since the TSA is already purchasing one type of body scanner that does not expose passengers to radiation why it is does not go forward only purchasing that type of body scanner. Apparently the reason is the TSA wants to stimulate competition between companies to get the best price. Let’s hope passengers are not the loser in this process.
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