Camera shy or people’s healthat risk? Full-body scanners are causing controversy with pilots and travelers in airports for demanding the naked truth to insure safety.
New Rochelle, NY – Pilots and travelers have been speaking out about the growing number of security systems put inside airports in the recent months. Most recently these scanners have been introduced to John F. Kennedy International Airport to better help security officials detect weapons and explosives.
The new full-body scanners are a part of Advanced Imaging Technology that give off x-ray like images to security officials conducting the screening. The picture images that show up in the screen show everything on a person’s body even underneath their clothing. On a more advanced level plastic objects can also be detected as well as other object hidden within a person’s body.
With the hype about the safety of pilots along with travelers it is almost inevitable for people to question health risks from the radiation waves from the scanners. Last week the FDA (Food and Drug Administrative) approved of the x-ray scanners saying that they have “miniscule” potential health risks. The FDA also included in a letter to John P. Holden, President Obama's science and technology advisor, “concern that the dose to the skin may be dangerously high is not supported.”
David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University and a professor of radiation biophysics, also told CNN, “If you think of the entire population of, shall we say a billion people per year going through these scanners; it's very likely that some number of those will develop cancer from the radiation from these scanners.”
The argument that has been going back and worth to various researchers, doctors and Politian’s is almost at the point of a stand-still. To those that are actually experiencing this security process, they not kept quiet to say the least. Protests have been occurring more often especially to those who are asked to be exposed to this type of radiation on a day to day basis, pilots. The concerning uproar from pilots hasn’t been easy after the FDA’s letter was sent to Washington D.C. and opened up to the public eye, many pilots questioned the statistics received from different sources and pilots don’t know who to believe or turn to. The U.S. Airline Pilots Association recently spoke out about the issue.
“Based on currently available medical information, has determined that frequent exposure to TSA-operated scanner devices may subject pilots to significant health risks," Capt. Mike Cleary, president of the USAPA stated.
Officials say they are taking the pilots into extreme consideration with other options to offer pending further agreement from U.S. officials and the Transportation Security Administration.
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Learn more about how Full-body scanners work
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