If you're like me, the thought of air travel ranks right up there with getting a root canal.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, preparing for domestic air travel means long lines, intrusive searches, griping about packing liquid into little baggies and dealing with Transportation Security Administration screeners who treat every traveler like a potential terrorist.
While there may be valid reasons for the inconveniences and indignities, it certainly has dampened my flying experience. And thanks to the infamous aborted attempt to blow up an airplane in Detroit this past Christmas Day, TSA has expressed renewed interest in the increased use of full body scans.
There are two types of imaging technology used in airport security. Millimeter wave scanners, which beam radio waves over the body to create a 3D image, expose the traveler to no radiation.
As of January, there were 40 millimeter wave scanners in use in 19 U.S. airports. According to TSA's Web site, six of these machines are used for primary screening at six airports, and 34 machines are used at 13 airports for secondary, or random, screening, as an alternative to a pat down.
But in addition to the millimeter wave scanner, there is a new machine called a backscatter X-ray scanner that produces a two-dimensional image. Though both machines are used to see through clothing and identify unusual objects, such as guns, box cutters, plastic knives or a plastic baggie filled with flour, only one - backscatter X-ray machines - expose individuals to ionizing radiation such as that used in regular, everyday medical X-rays.
Whereas those medical X-rays are obtained by rays going through a person, the backscatter machine works by bouncing X-rays off an individual's skin to produce an outline image of the person's body, hence the term "backscatter."
Are radiation fears founded?
As if the experience of flying wasn't concern enough, words like "X-ray" and "radiation" may be enough to redefine the fear of flying.
But physicians like Dr. James Thrall, chief of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, have reported that the radiation levels are well below the threshold that could be considered a risk to an individual's health. The TSA Web site also addresses the safety and health issue by stating that the radiation dose from a single scan on a backscatter machine is the equivalent of two minutes of flying on an airplane.
According to information from American Science and Engineering, an organization that manufactures scanners, one airport scan emits less than 10 microrem, the unit used to measure radiation.
As a comparison, an hour on an airplane at a high altitude exposes an individual to 300 microrem from the cosmic rays, and the average person is exposed to 1,000 microrem of radiation over the course of a normal day from the air and ground around them.
In an interview published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in December, Joe Reiss, vice president of marketing for American Science and Engineering, said, "It's hard to prove that there are zero health effects of this technology. You can always find someone who will say that any incremental amount of radiation is not good. But people typically do not appreciate the fact that they're exposed to radiation every single day - several hundred times more radiation than with a system like ours."
There is also concern that the see-through-to-your-skin capability of the backscatter scanner raises privacy and confidentiality issues. Some critics of the technology complain that the images may be considered as nude photos of the individual being scanned.
TSA officials have responded to these complaints and indicate that there are no distinguishing facial features on the image and that TSA screeners do not actually see anyone face to face. They are reading the scanner's images in a secure room with no ability to discern who belongs to which image. Another concern is that the technology may allow screeners to gain access to private medical information, such as if someone had a colostomy bag.
Though our country's national security and the safety of our citizens are vitally important, there seems to still be plenty of remaining discussion regarding the use of backscatter scanners.
One thing's for sure though. If these backscatter scanners help move along the line at the airport security screening checkpoint, I'd consider having one.
Contributing Editor Betty Long is a registered nurse and founder of Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates, a health care advocacy firm that has helped thousands of patients navigate the health care system and saved millions of dollars in health care costs.
