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24 May 2012

Answer to Question #9469 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Security Screening

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

I work at a courthouse and have to go through the scanners daily-usually three or four times a day. I've had many family members die from cancer and I travel a lot so I have to go through the airport screening. Am I getting too much radiation from the scanners? How do I tell if I'm getting too much?

Thank you for your questions. Despite all the hype about x-ray backscatter scanners at airports, most of the airport scanners are still of the magnetic field type with no ionizing radiation and so are the courthouse scanners.

If you do happen to go to an airport and also happen to get in the line leading to the x-ray backscatter scanner, you will receive a very small dose of radiation. If you do this 80 times, you will receive a total radiation dose that is equivalent to the radiation dose you get each day from natural background. If you go through an x-ray backscatter scanner 400 times, you will receive a total radiation dose that is equivalent to the radiation dose you get from one plane flight.

You would need to determine what "too much" means for you. The amount of radiation from a backscatter scanner is insignificant when compared to the radiation doses we receive every day from things around us and from our own bodies (our bodies contain radioactive potassium).

Kelly Classic
Certified Medical Health Physicist

Answer posted on 17 December 2010. The information and material posted on this website is intended as general reference information only. Specific facts and circumstances may alter the concepts and applications of materials and information described herein. The information provided is not a substitute for professional advice and should not be relied upon in the absence of such professional advice specific to whatever facts and circumstances are presented in any given situation. Answers are correct at the time they are posted on the Website. Be advised that over time, some requirements could change, new data could be made available, or Internet links could change. For answers that have been posted for several months or longer, please check the current status of the posted information prior to using the responses for specific applications.