Ever since 2009, when that guy smuggled plastic explosives in his Jockey shorts and tried to blow up a plane on its way to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been pushing for full-body scanners at all airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having recently been groped (sorry, \u201cpatted down\u201d) before flying out of Chicago and then full-body scanned before flying home, I was curious about the risks of this additional radiation. A recent article in Archives of Internal Medicine<\/em> helped put it into (mildly guarded) perspective. I say \u201cguarded\u201d because even experts in the field ultimately can only make educated guesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using a technique called backscatter radiation, the scanners offer the person viewing the images extremely detailed information. On screen you appear in your birthday suit, so if like me you\u2019ve got a knapsack full of body-image neuroses, you might prefer being patted down. (Really, if you want to know my circumcision status, I\u2019d prefer you just ask.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n To reassure me that some yahoo isn\u2019t chuckling about my love handles, they\u2019ve installed a software-based face scrambler (which could probably be disabled by any 14-year-old) and allegedly there\u2019s also no way to store or transmit the images. Allegedly, of course, because the feds admitted they actually were<\/em> storing the images (though apparently not posting them on Facebook). Now they promise no more of this, saying they\u2019re keeping tabs on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The security person viewing the image is offsite, so you\u2019re spared the smirk, guffaw, or, for the fortunate few, thumbs up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scanning device you\u2019ve been passing through, arms in the air, thumbs pointing at each other, uses backscatter technology, which works in a kind of two-step process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, you receive a very tiny dose of the same x-ray radiation you\u2019d get in any medical imaging procedure, but the dose is so low that it\u2019s absorbed only by your skin (rather than passing through your body and onto a piece of film like a regular x ray). Next, the scanning device collects an image of the radiation reflected off your body–the \u201cbackscatter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before you start fretting about your precious skin being deep-fried, you need to have a sense of how small the radiation exposure really is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because radiation from an airport scanner concentrates in the skin, never reaching internal organs, the only cancer that could theoretically occur if you literally lived in a scanner would be skin cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A team of statisticians came up with the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In medicine, we often use the phrase \u201crisk-benefit\u201d in regard to medical decisions involving everything from diagnostic tests to prescription drugs and surgical procedures. For example, there\u2019s a greater risk in prescribing an antibiotic for a common cold than any benefit you could ever receive from it (antibiotics have no affect on cold viruses or any other viruses).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the extraordinarily tiny radiation exposure from an airport scanning device, the risk-benefit ratio of going through one is good, provided it actually does improve national security and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course you can always opt for the pat-down, and I notice quite a few people prefer it. However, if you\u2019re getting a pat-down to avoid radiation from the scanner, don\u2019t bother. After liftoff you\u2019ll be five miles closer to the sun and out from under any protective cloud cover, receiving a dose of radiation 150 times that of the scanner you chose to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all, you could also consider the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Edelberg, MD<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever since 2009, when that guy smuggled plastic explosives in his Jockey shorts and tried to blow up a plane on its way to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been pushing for full-body scanners at all airports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2,50,2331,3],"tags":[1272,1273],"class_list":["post-4089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a","category-blog","category-healthy-lifestyle","category-internal-medicine","category-knowledge-base","tag-airport-scanners","tag-radiation-exposure"],"yoast_head":"\r\nHow the scanner works and the risks of going through one<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n