All You Need To Know About Airport Body Scanners

Flying to your favorite destination this summer would take you through the ordeal of having to wait at the airport for the final boarding call. We know how hard it is to manage your kids when you are traveling, especially while waiting for the doors of terminal to open. Airports aren’t like any other halting station for the railcars, buses, or private vehicles. Everything involved in this journey would be of extra security and superior quality. It is for these reasons that many people prefer flying over traveling on wheels; speed is undoubtedly the primary factor.

However, one aspect that almost everyone hates is the time where the passengers have to remove their shoes and other valuables to walk through the body scanners. This doorway-like setup of a machine is often called a Body Scanner, a Whole Body Imager, or an Airport Scanner. Several controversies have been sprouting out about the genuineness of the operators. But these machines don’t seem to have anything but the security protocol to follow. Let us look at these airport body scanners in detail.

Working of the Airport Scanners

Waves are used in these scanners to create images of the people passing through them. These waves will detect any dangerous items the passenger is carrying under his/her clothing. None of the images are stored on the devices. The two types of body scanners are: a backscatter X-ray and a millimetre wave scanner. The latter makes body images by using high frequency radio waves to reveal hidden objects under clothes. In the backscatter X-ray scanners, the radiation reflecting from the human body is detected to find what is inside the clothing.

Controversy

TSA has certain rules and routines, and screening is one of them. Scanners are being used in airports for the same purpose. However, people think this is necessary only if there is a probable cause to search a passenger because the exposure to the transmission waves can lead to long-term health effects. Safety of the scanners need to be checked to maintain the emission of these waves without affecting the passengers. A study produced results showing that one scan on these machines will expose the passengers to a radiation equivalent to the natural background emission they receive during the flight.

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Body Scanners in the World

According to the statistical data containing details about the scanners used across the globe, the most body scanners is in the U.S. Many of the airports in Europe are also likely to launch these scanners conforming to the demand of the Department of Transport. The Manchester Airport had been using the backscatter scanner, which is not a part of their system anymore. They removed it die to the potential health risks. The full body scanners in the Edinburgh and Galsgow airports are being used only on randomly selected passengers. In the U.S., you can opt for touching search instead of body scanning. However, in the UK, anyone refusing to pass through the scanner cannot fly.