The thwarted terrorist attack on a passenger jet going to Detroit, where the would be terrorist had explosives in his under-wear, has got governments around the world deciding to install body scanners at airports in order to, hopefully, stop any other suicidal terrorist from smuggling explosives onto commercial airlines.
Airport Security scanners use one ot two technologies - millimeter wave sensors or backscatter X-rays. As the majority of body scanners installed are the backscatter X-ray type this article will be about these only. The question that both passengers and governments really should be wanting to know but are not doing so is. Is the full body scanner safe to use? Will regular airline passengers who are scanned many times a year suffer any detrimental effects to their health?
X-rays:
X-rays, also called Rontgen Rays, are a form of ionizing radiation. If you have ever had an X-ray you will be aware that while the Radiologists takes a X-ray he stands behind a radiation proof screen in order to protect himself from the ionizing radiation.
If you have had a X-ray while at the dental practitioners you will see that the Dentist will also stand at the rear of a screen or leave the room while the X-ray is taken. Radiologists and Dentists know that exposure to X-rays can cause cancer.
According to Cancer Research UK. The proportion of cancers due to X-rays is 0.6 percent.
Mammograms:
Females at high risk -- those with a genetic or familial predisposition to breast cancer -- who have had 5 or more mammograms in their twenties were found to be 2.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer than high-risk women who had not had any mammograms.
Elderly females at high-risk increased their chances of developing breast cancer by 1.5 times by having mammograms. Basically, in high risk females, mammograms increase the chances of having breast cancer. The greater the number of mammograms you have the greater the risk of getting cancer.
After reviewing the clinical data the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has published new recommendations regarding mammograms.
Specifically, that women under the age of 50 should not have mammograms unless there exists a good reason for doing so. That women above 50 should only get them every other year. The radiation from mammograms may be low-dose radiation but it is still X-rays. The same kind of ionizing radiation used in backscatter X-ray full body scanning equipment.
If getting a mammogram raises the risk of a woman developing breast cancer then what about the amount of ionizing radiation a woman would be receiving if she were being scanned using a Backscatter X-ray full body scanner every time she went on a journey on a commercial airline.
CT Scans:
There is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that exposure to X-rays is harmful for your health. It would be advisable to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation as much as possible. One way to do this is to not have any kind of unneeded medical X-rays. For example some people have annual full body CT scans as part of a yearly health check-up.
As per a research report in the New England Journal of Medicine one third of all CT scans are medically unnecessary. When you consider that during the year 2006, in the US, there was greater than 62 million CT scans, which means there were over 20 million unnecessary CT scans performed that year.
All airports will eventually have body scanners installed for security reasons. You may currently opt out of the airport body scanner and get a pat-down, however this may change some time in the future as airports would prefer everyone to go through the scanner.
In the event you travel regularly then, according to the scientific evidence, you will be exposing yourself to X-rays which could cause you to suffer serious medical problems.
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