The Answer to A Question I Was Wondering About.

With all the issues with various nasty people trying to blow airliners out of the sky using explosives carried close to their bodies, and the suggestions that these advanced x-ray scanners could screen such souls – even with noise making material in their undies – I wondered whether we were all going to be overdosed with X-Rays.

The answer soon appeared.

Radiologists Downplay Health Risk From Airport Body Scanners

John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, January 6, 2010

The American College of Radiology today downplayed concerns that full body scanners at security checkpoints in U.S. airports would pose a health risk.

In the wake of a thwarted Christmas Day bombing attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in the skies over Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that it is ramping up the deployment and use of the scanners, which produce anatomically accurate images of the body and can detect objects and substances concealed by clothing.

.....

"An airline passenger flying cross-country is exposed to more radiation from the flight than from screening by one of these devices," ACR said. "The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement has reported that a traveler would need to experience 2,500 backscatter scans per year to reach what they classify as a negligible individual dose. The American College of Radiology agrees with this conclusion."

John Commins is an editor with HealthLeaders Media. He can be reached at jcommins@healthleadersmedia.com.

The full article is here:

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/PHY-244540/Radiologists-Downplay-Health-Risk-From-Airport-Body-Scanners.html

Thanks for that John!

Seems there is not a problem except for the most extreme of frequent fliers!

David.