Health Concerns and Ineffectiveness

Health Concerns
Multiple radiation safety authorities such as the nation council on radiation protection and measurements, the health physics society, and the American college of radiology, have not found any compelling evidence to declare full body scans unsafe. However some organizations including the international atomic energy agency and nuclear energy agency believe that these machines should not be used to scan pregnant women or children. There are currently no long-term studies that have been done on the scanners being used. Some opponents of the scanners have recently published records of emitted radiation equaling as much as twenty times stronger than was previously reported. They can be potentially dangerous in large groups of people and cause an increased cancer risk in children and at risk populations. The TSA's studies are only giving the radiation amounts coming from the persons skin and surrounding tissues, as opposed to the whole body. While some radiation health officials argue that the radiation is a significant dose, others say that it is not quite so significant due to the way radiation translates to the human body.

Ineffectiveness
Many opponents of using the scanners in our airports claim that they are ineffective, and may be easily bypassed. A study published in the journal of transportation security suggested terrorists may fool the machines by employing what is called a "backscatter" technique. A terrorist could tape a thin film of explosives to the stomach and walk through the machine undetected. One reason why these scanners may be ineffective is inept security agents. An undercover TSA employee walked through multiple detectors with a gun on his person and walked freely through them. This only occurred because the guard was not paying attention to the screen. The machines also fail to detect things that are hidden around the body, or in body cavities.