Full Body X-Ray Scanners At The Airport Are Potentially Dangerous - We Should Use Alternative Technology

Full Body X-Ray Scanners At The Airport Are Potentially Dangerous - We Should Use Alternative Technology

Fifty-two state-of-the-art scanners are currently screening passengers at 23 U.S. airports. By the end of 2011, there will be 1,000 machines and two out of every three passengers will be asked to step into one of the new machines for a six-second head-to-toe scan before boarding. About half of these machines will be X-ray back-scatter scanners. They use low-energy X-rays to image beneath passengers' clothing.

Ionizing radiation such as the X-rays used in these scanners have the potential to induce chromosome damage that can lead to cancer. The stated dose, about .02 microsieverts, a medical unit of radiation, is averaged over the whole body. But if the dose is calculated as what is incident at the skin, the number would be higher, though how much higher is unclear.

Recent research indicates that about 5 percent of the population is especially sensitive to radiation. These people have gene mutations that render them less able to repair X-ray damage to their DNA. Two examples are the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 mutations associated with breast and ovarian cancer, but many more such defects are likely. Children are also more vulnerable to radiation damage, because they have more dividing cells at any time. A radiation-induced mutation in their cells can lead to cancer decades later. The most likely risk from the airport scanners is a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma, which is usually curable and frequently occurs on the head and neck

The simple solution to this potential health hazard is to use millimeter-wave scanners that, as far as we know today, don't have any associated radiation risks. Millimeter-wave scanners use a different technology that produce images using radio waves, not X-rays, and these waves are not a type of ionizing radiation. The images are comparable in quality to the X-ray scanners. The cost is also comparable to the X-ray scanners

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