The prevented terrorist attack on a passenger jet traveling to Detroit, where the would be terrorist had explosives in his underwear, has got governments around the world preparing to install security scanners at airports in order to, hopefully, put off any other suicidal terrorist from smuggling explosives onto commercial airlines.

Airport Security scanners use one ot two technologies - millimeter wave sensors or backscatter X-rays. As nearly all 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 frequent airline passengers who are scanned many times a year suffer any damaging consequences to their health?

X-rays:

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

If you have had a X-ray whilst at the dentists you will discover that the Dentist will also stand behind a screen or get out of the room while the X-ray is taken. Radiologists and Dentists know that exposure to X-rays can result in cancer.

As reported by Cancer Research UK. The percentage of cancers as a result of X-rays is 0.6 percent.

Mammograms:

Women at high-risk -- those with a genetic or familial predisposition to breast tumors -- who have had five or more mammograms during their twenties were 2.5 times more prone to develop breast cancer than high-risk women who has not had any mammograms.

Older women at high risk increased their own chances of developing breast cancer by 1.5 times because of mammograms. Basically, in high risk women, mammograms increase the chances of getting breast cancer. The more mammograms that you have the greater the risk of getting malignant tumors.

After reviewing the scientific evidence the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has made completely new recommendations regarding mammograms.

Specifically, that women younger than 50 should not have mammograms unless there is a very good reason for doing so. That women over 50 really should only get them every other year. The radiation from mammograms may be low-dose radiation but it is still X-rays. The exact same kind of ionizing radiation used in backscatter X-ray full body scanners.

If having a mammogram increases the chance of a woman developing breast cancer then what about the level of ionizing radiation a woman would receive if she were scanned with a Backscatter X-ray full body scanning device every time she went on a journey upon a commercial airline.

CT Scans:

There is more than enough evidence to show that exposure to X-rays is hazardous to your health and wellbeing. It would be advisable to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation whenever possible. One way to accomplish this would be to not have any unnecessary medical X-rays. As an example some people have annual full body CT scans as part of an annual health check-up.

According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine a third of every CT scans are medically unnecessary. Considering that during the year 2006, in the US, there were more than 62 million CT scans, that means there were over twenty million unnecessary CT scans performed that year.

All airports will ultimately have body scanners installed for security reasons. You can currently opt out of the airport body scanner and have a pat-down, but this can change some time in the future as airports really want everyone to go through the body scanner.

If you fly on a regular basis then, based on the scientific evidence, you will be exposing yourself to X-rays which may cause you to suffer serious health issues.

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