With extra security and new technologies, some travelers may be concerned with radiation from elaborate scanners at airports. A new independent study has found that these scanners won't fry your organs and they're not even much of a threat. The study concluded that full-body scanners used for airport screenings do not expose passengers to dangerous levels of radiation.
The nongovernment funded study, performed by the Marquette University College of Engineering, found that the radiation from backscatter scanners does sink below the skin and reaches 29 organs, including the heart and brain, but the radiation levels are much lower than those from other x-ray procedures such as mammograms.
Assistant professor of biomedical engineering Taly Gilat Schmidt, who conducted the study, based her conclusions on scanner radiation data from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Using simulation software, she was able to input this data and see models of how these x-ray photons travel through the body.
The study used four models: a 34-year old male, a 26-year-old female, an 11-year old female and a 6-year-old male to determine is that study was different based on age or sex. Gilat Schmidt found that the scanners expose all passengers to less than a third of the maximum recommended dose of 0.25 micro-sieverts, a standard established by the American National Standards Institute.
The TSA currently uses two types of scanners at airports. The backscatter X-ray, which was used in the study, is a machine that uses low-level ionizing radiation to create two-sided images. The other type, a millimeter wave scanner, uses radio waves, instead of ionizing radiation, to create three-dimensional images.
The TSA submitted their scanners to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the U.S. Army Public Health Command to be studied. All of these tests also showed that the scanners don't present a risk to passengers, but critics are still seeking more research and calling for more studies.
Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is skeptical about the Marquette study since it was based on TSA data.
She told the Chicago Tribune, "We do not truly know the risk of this radiation exposure over multiple screenings, for frequent fliers, those in vulnerable groups, or TSA's own employees operating the machines."
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