Natasha Menezes

Getting exposed to X-ray radiation is no longer limited to hospitals; it is now a routine part of the airport screening process. According to a recent article by Betty Long on the EBN Benefits News website, as a result of the well-known blow-up attempt on an airplane in Detroit last Christmas, TSA is reestablishing their previous attention to using full body scanners as part of the airport screening process.

Typically, at airport security, millimeter wave scanners are used to see through clothing and detect unusual objects, such as guns, box cutters, plastic knives, etc. These millimeter wave scanners beam radio waves over the individual’s body and create a 3D image. However, the millimeter wave scanner does not expose the individual to radiation.

Long went on to state that, as of January 2010, 40 of these scanners were used in 19 different U.S. airports. Six of these machines were used for primary screening at six different airports, and the remaining 34 machines were used at 13 different airports as secondary screening aids, as an alternative to a pat down check.

However, in addition to these millimeter wave scanners, another machine called the Backscatter X-ray scanner was introduced. This machine creates a two-dimensional image. The Backscatter X-ray detects the objects that the millimeter wave scanner detects, however, it exposes the individuals to ionizing radiation (like medical X-rays), whereas the Millimeter Wave scanner does not.

The Backscatter X-ray scanner varies from medical X-rays however as medical X-rays are acquired by rays going through the individual, whereas the Backscatter operates by bouncing X-rays off the individual’s skin in order to create an outline image of the individual.

According to the chief of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Dr. James Thrall, the levels of radiation are well below the levels that would be considered detrimental to an individual’s health. Long stated that, according to the TSA website, the amount of radiation emitted from a single scan of the Backscatter machine is comparable to flying on an aircraft for two minutes.

Long stated that in accordance with an organization that makes scanners, American Science and Engineering, a single scan “emits less than 10 microrem (the unit that measures radiation). To put the measurement into perspective, an hour of flying on an aircraft would, on average, expose an individual to approximately 300 microrem. Long went on to affirm that, on average, a typical person is exposed to around 1,000 microrem of radiation in a single day.

Betty Long’s article rounds up with a statement by in an interview in the Cleveland Plain Dealer written by Joe Reiss, Vice President of marketing for American Science and Engineering, articulates that “It is hard to prove that there are zero health effects of this technology. You can always find someone who will say that any incremental amount of radiation is not good. But people typically do not appreciate the fact that they're exposed to radiation every single day - several hundred times more radiation than with a system like ours."

Whatever the truth may be, I consider the fact that, in my personal life, I am living in such a world that leads me to feel the occasional trip through airport security, which is positioned to help protect my life, is not worth criticizing. Especially when I surround myself with television, computers, the microwave, and countless items whose effects I am unaware of, on a daily basis – and which I chose to be a part of my daily living.