The stopped terrorist assault on a passenger jet traveling to Detroit, where the would be terrorist had explosives in his under-wear, has got governments around the world preparing to install full body scanners at airports in order to, hopefully, block any other suicidal terrorist from taking explosives onto commercial airlines.

Airport Security scanners use one ot two technologies - millimeter wave sensors or backscatter X-rays. As most body scanners installed are the backscatter type this article will be about these only. The question that both passengers and governments should really be wanting to know but are not doing so is. Is the full body scanner safe to use? Will regular airline passengers who are scanned several times a year suffer any damaging effects to their health?

X-rays:

X-rays, also called Rontgen Rays, are a type of ionizing radiation. If you have previously had an X-ray you will be aware that when the Radiologists takes a X-ray he stands at the back of a radiation proof screen in order to protect himself against the ionizing radiation.

If you have had a X-ray whilst at the dental practitioners you will notice that the Dentist will also stand at the back a screen or leave the room while the X-ray is taken. Radiologists and Dental practitioners know that exposure to X-rays may cause malignant tumors.

As reported by Cancer Research UK. The proportion of cancers caused by X-rays is 0.6 percent.

Mammograms:

Most women at high risk -- individuals with a genetic or familial predisposition to breast cancer -- who may have received 5 or more mammograms during their twenties were found to be 2.5 times more likely to develop breast malignant tumors than high-risk women who had not received any kind of mammograms.

Elderly women at high-risk increased their likelihood of developing breast cancer by 1.5 times by having mammograms. Simply, in high-risk females, mammograms increase the chances of getting breast cancer. The greater the number of mammograms you have the higher the risk of getting cancer.

Upon examining the clinical evidence the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has published new suggestions regarding mammograms.

Specifically, that women under the age of 50 do not need mammograms unless that there exists a very good reason for doing so. That women above 50 should only get them every second year. The radiation from mammograms may be low-dose radiation but it is still X-rays. Exactly the same type of ionizing radiation utilized in backscatter X-ray full body scanning equipment.

If having a mammogram raises the risk of a female developing breast cancer then what about the amount of ionizing radiation a female might be receiving if she were scanned using a Backscatter X-ray full body scanner each time she went on a journey on a commercial airline.

CT Scans:

One can find more than enough proof to demonstrate that exposure to X-rays is hazardous for your health. It might be advisable to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation as much as possible. A way to accomplish this is to not have any unneeded medical X-rays. For example some individuals have annual full body CT scans as part of a yearly health and wellbeing examination.

As per a report in the New England Journal of Medicine one third of all CT scans will be medically unnecessary. When you consider that throughout the year 2006, in the United States, there was over 62 million CT scans, this means that there were over 20 million needless CT scans performed that year.

All airports will eventually have body scanners installed for the purpose of security purposes. You may currently opt out of the airport body scanner and have a pat-down, however this may change any time in the future as airports would like everybody to go through the body scanner.

In the event you fly frequently then, according to the medical evidence, you will be exposing yourself to X-rays which can cause you to sustain severe medical problems.

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