Growing ubiquity of X-ray scanners could pose public health risk
and are believed to be insufficient to declare the machines as safe.
It is an established medical fact that at higher levels, ionizing radiation – used by backscatter full-body scanners – can damage DNA and mutate genes, potentially causing cancer. In addition, a study by the National Academy of Sciences foundrepeated exposures to low-doses of radiation can lead to cancer. Over time, the more an individual is exposed to radiation, no matter how little, the greater the chance of developing cancer over their lifetime.
As a result, the European Union, in its regulations governing the use of body scanners at airports, has banned the use of scanners that rely on ionizing radiation out of concerns for health, instead opting for millimeter-wave machines that do not emit radiation.
In defense of the machines, manufacturers of full-body scanners maintain that their devices only emit minute amounts of radiation, hundreds of times less than a single chest X-ray and the equivalent of flying on an airplane for a few minutes.
Peter Rez, a physics professor at Arizona State University and a critic of the machines, elegantly sums up the problem with the expanding use of X-ray machines.
“Because of the wide proliferation of these things, we don’t know who’s using them and how frequently,” Rez said. “It’s not that radiation from these machines is very high. It’s ‘Does the benefit outweigh the risk?’”
Following the 9/11 attacks security officials have increasingly relied on technology like full-body scanners to intercept terrorists from smuggling bombs aboard airplanes as well as vehicles at border checkpoints.
In addition to the full-body scanners at airports, federal law enforcement agencies and the military have taken to deploying a mobile van-mounted X-ray machine. Originally designed to detect car bombs in war zones, the Z Backscatter Van manufactured by American Science & Engineering can also detect organic materials like drugs and explosives. The van is capable of scanning vehicles while moving or it can scan vehicles as they pass the van while it is parked.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has purchased seventy-five of these vans for use at border crossings, ports, checkpoints, and even the Super Bowl.
TSA has yet to formally deploy the backscatter vans, but it has tested them at the Delaware ferry crossing and the Long Island ferry crossing. Meanwhile the New York Police Department uses the vans and DHS officials have conducted exercises with the vans, scanning tractor-trailers along Interstate 20.
Given the repeated attempts to attack U.S. critical infrastructure, it is unlikely that security officials will abandon the use of backscatter X-ray machines anytime soon. But by increasing radiation exposure, security officials must be mindful of adopting policies that keep individuals safe, no matter how slight the risk of cancer may be. Officials have an ethical responsibility to ensure that they are not unduly increasing the risk of cancer in the name of protecting its citizens.
Eugene K. Chow is the executive editor of the Homeland Security newswire
