U.S. airport scanners pose skin cancer risks, doctors warn

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/airport+scanners+pose+skin+cancer+risks+doctors+warn/3821436/story.html

 

 

U.S. airport scanners pose skin cancer risks, doctors warn

 

 

Agence France-Presse and Postmedia NewsNovember 12, 2010

 

 

 

U.S. scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners that are being used to screen passengers at airports around that country may be unsafe, raising concerns for Canadians travelling south of the border.

Photograph by: David McNew, Getty Images

WASHINGTON — U.S. scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners that are being used to screen passengers at airports around that country may be unsafe, raising concerns for Canadians travelling south of the border.

"They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays," said Dr. Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of medicine.

"No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner," he said.

The possible health dangers posed by the U.S. scanners add to passengers and airline crews' concerns about the devices, which have been dubbed "naked" scanners because of the graphic image they give of a person's body, genitalia and all.

Despite the concerns the warning raises for Canadians travelling through U.S. airports, authorities in this country say scanners used at airports here rely on different technology that doesn't pose a health risk to travellers.

According to the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, full-body X-ray scanner technology used in the U.S. is not permitted in Canada.

While 36 full-body scanners are in use at 16 Canadian airports, spokesman Mathieu Larocque said they use "millimetre wave technology" which projects low-level radio frequency energy "over and around the passengers' bodies.

"The RF wave is reflected back from the body and from objects concealed on the body, producing a three-dimensional image," he said.

According to Health Canada, this technology poses no risk to humans.

"Health Canada has assessed the technical information on these devices and concluded that the radio-frequency energy emitted by the device is well within Canada's guidelines for safe human exposure," says an article posted on the department's website.

"The electromagnetic non-ionizing radiation used in these scanners is based on millimetre wave technology and does not pose a risk to human health and safety, from either single or repeated exposures."

A regional airline pilot in the U.S. last month refused to go through one of the American scanners, calling it an "assault on my person" and a violation of his right to privacy.

The Transportation Security Administration began rolling out full-body scanners at U.S. airports in 2007.

A group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco raised concerns about the "potential serious health risks" from the scanners in a letter sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology in April.

Biochemist John Sedat and his colleagues said in the letter that most of the energy from the scanners is delivered to the skin and underlying tissue.

"While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high," they wrote.

The Office of Science and Technology responded this week to the scientists' letter, saying the scanners have been "tested extensively" by U.S. government agencies and were found to meet safety standards.

But Sedat said Friday that the official response was "deeply flawed."

"We still don't know the beam intensity or other details of their classified system," he said, adding that university scientists were preparing a rebuttal to the White House statement.

Some 315 "naked" scanners are currently in use at 65 U.S. airports, according to the TSA.

Despite the different technology used in this country, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has received about 30 complaints about the scanners, agency's spokesman said Friday. He wouldn't say what people were specifically upset about.

Critics of the machines have argued they are a violation of privacy and do little to increase security.

© Copyright (c) AFP

 

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