The halted terrorist assault on a passenger jet traveling to Detroit, where the would be terrorist had explosives in his under-wear, has got governments around the world preparing to install body scanners at airports in order to, hopefully, block any other suicidal terrorist from smuggling explosives onto commercial airlines.
Airport Body scanners use one ot two technologies - millimeter wave sensors or backscatter X-rays. As most body scanners installed are the backscatter type this article will be about them. The question that both passengers and governments ought to 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 sustain any damaging consequences to their health?
X-rays:
X-rays, also called Rontgen Rays, are a type of ionizing radiation. If you have previously had an X-ray you will realize that whilst the Radiologists takes a X-ray he stands behind a radiation proof screen to be able to safeguard herself against the ionizing radiation.
If you have had a X-ray whilst at the dental practitioners you will discover 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 understand that exposure to X-rays could cause malignant tumors.
As reported by Cancer Research UK. The proportion of cancers as a result of X-rays is 0.6 percent.
Mammograms:
Females at high risk -- those with a genetic or familial predisposition to breast tumors -- who may have received 5 or more mammograms during their twenties were found to be 2.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer than high-risk women who has not received any kind of mammograms.
Elderly women at high-risk increased their chances of developing breast cancer by 1.5 times because of mammograms. Simply, in high-risk females, mammograms increase the chances of getting breast cancer. The greater the number of mammograms you have the greater the risk of getting malignant tumors.
Upon examining the clinical evidence the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has published new recommendations regarding mammograms.
Specifically, that women younger than 50 do not need mammograms unless that there exists a very 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. Exactly the same type of ionizing radiation utilized in backscatter X-ray full body scanning equipment.
If having a mammogram raises the risk of a woman developing breast cancer then what about the level of ionizing radiation a female might be receiving if she were scanned using a Backscatter X-ray full body scanner every time she went on a journey upon a commercial airline.
CT Scans:
One can find more than enough proof to demonstrate that exposure to X-rays is hazardous for your health. It would be advisable to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation whenever possible. A way to accomplish this is to not have any unneeded medical X-rays. For example some people have annual full body CT scans as part of an annual health and wellbeing examination.
As per a report in the New England Journal of Medicine one third of all CT scans are medically unnecessary. Considering that throughout the year 2006, in the United States, there was more than 62 million CT scans, which means there were over 20 million unnecessary CT scans carried out that year.
All airports will ultimately have body scanners installed for the purpose of security purposes. You may currently opt out of the airport body scanner and have a pat-down, however this may change some time in the future as airports would like everybody to go through the body scanner.
In the event you fly regularly then, according to the scientific evidence, you will be exposing yourself to X-rays which can cause you to sustain severe health issues.
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