Drive-by X-ray vans raise privacy, health worries

that individual,” Francisco said. “You can’t do that without a warrant or probable cause.”

Since it is virtually impossible to detect a ZBV search, Francisco said the law would be harder to enforce, raising the need for more guidelines. “It’s certainly very useful for certain types of things, like anti-terror detection, but we may want to put into place some kind of guidelines on where and when they can use that. Much like wiretapping,” he said.

Health

Another issue with the machines is their potential health hazards. Macedo quotes Arizona State University Professor Peter Rez, an expert in radiation physics, to say that “So long as a person is somewhere away, like tens of feet, the dose isn’t that high, it’s very, very low indeed.” If a person were to walk next to the van while it was scanning, Rez said, “Then I would start getting worried.”

 

AS&E says the system is safe for operators and subjects, and that “one scan of the ZBV is equivalent to flying in an airplane at altitude for two minutes.”

Rez says the levels would be fine in most cases, but in certain circumstances they could pose a small risk. “Let’s assume a pregnant woman pushing a stroller slowly walks by this van and is quite close to the side of the van, maybe within one to two feet. This woman and her baby could receive a few micro Sv, still not a high number but more than the NS 43.17 standard allows,” he told FoxNews.com.

CBP’s Simmons says that given the limited image the ZBVs show of a person, the only reason to scan someone would be to detect contraband, and given the limited image it would show of a home, there’s little use for them outside their intended security purposes.

You’d have to be inches away from the house, you’d be better off just looking into the window,” Simmons said. “And, again, a house has a pretty thick foundation. If it was brick or something like that I’m not sure the ZBV’s even powerful enough to get through that.”

Rez says one of his students reported using a ZBV at the UN while he was serving in the military. “It was a secondary screening mechanism for trucks going into a loading dock, but it was on a public street and they were just scanning people and nobody was being told this was going on,” Rez told Macedo. “That kind of shocked me. …I think they’re being used in a more widespread manner than people would have one believe.”