The stopped terrorist attack on a passenger jet going to Detroit, where the would be terrorist had explosives in his under-wear, has got governments around the world arranging to install security scanners at airports in order to, hopefully, inhibit any other suicidal terrorist from smuggling explosives onto commercial airlines.

Airport Security scanners use one ot two systems - millimeter wave sensors or backscatter X-rays. As most security scanners installed are the backscatter X-ray type this article will be about them. The question that both passengers and governments ought to be asking but are not doing so is. Is the full body scanner safe to use? Will habitual airline passengers who are scanned many times a year suffer any unfavorable effects to their health?

X-rays:

X-rays, also called Rontgen Rays, are a form of ionizing radiation. If you have ever had an X-ray you will realize that whilst the Radiologists takes the X-ray he stands behind a radiation proof screen in order to shield himself from the ionizing radiation.

If you have had a X-ray while at the dental practitioners you will discover that the Dentist will also stand behind a screen or leave the room while the X-ray is taken. Radiologists and Dentists know that subjection to X-rays may cause cancer.

According to Cancer Research UK. The proportion of cancers as a result of X-rays is 0.6 percent.

Mammograms:

Women at high risk -- those with a genetic or inherited predisposition to breast cancer -- who have had 5 or more mammograms in their twenties were 2.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer than high-risk women that had not had any mammograms.

Elderly females at high risk increased their chances of developing breast malignant tumors by 1.5 times by having mammograms. Basically, in high risk females, mammograms increase the chances of having breast cancer. The more mammograms you have the greater the risk of having cancer.

After reviewing the clinical data the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has made new recommendations regarding mammograms.

Particularly, that women under the age of 50 should not have mammograms unless there exists a good reason for doing so. That women over 50 should only get them every other year. The radiation from mammograms may be low-dose radiation but it is nevertheless X-rays. Exactly the same kind of ionizing radiation used in backscatter X-ray full body scanning equipment.

If getting a mammogram increases the risk of a woman developing breast cancer then how about the amount of ionizing radiation a woman would be receiving if she were being scanned with a Backscatter X-ray full body scanner each time she went on a trip on a commercial airline.

CT Scans:

There is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that exposure to X-rays is harmful to your health. It would be advisable to lessen exposure to ionizing radiation as much as possible. One way to do this is to not have any kind of unnecessary medical X-rays. For example some people have yearly full body CT scans as part of a yearly health check-up.

As per a research report in the New England Journal of Medicine a third of all CT scans are medically not necessary. When you consider that during the year 2006, in the US, there was more than 62 million CT scans, that means there were over 20 million needless CT scans performed that year.

All of the airports will eventually have body scanners installed for security reasons. You may currently opt out of the airport body scanner and get a pat-down, but this may change some time in the future since airports would like everyone to go through the scanner.

In the event you travel on a regular basis then, according to the scientific evidence, you are going to be exposing yourself to X-rays which can cause you to suffer serious health issues.

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