Airport Screening - Essay
Airport Screening Airport screening has become a controversial topic among Americans because of the new technology of being able to thoroughly screen people and reveal more than past machines have been able too. Airport securities personal are able to see through passenger’s clothes to ensure that no illegal items are being brought on board. A lot of people feel that the virtual nude scanners are an invasion of privacy that the airport security personal can see nude pictures of all the people that walk through it. People are arguing that this is a violation of our rights to privacy. X-rays produce the airport machines’ graphic images. This means that every time a person walks through these machines, he or she is exposed to radiation. According to Health Physics Society the amount is only 0.01 millirem which is not enough to cause any problems. However, that is for the people who only fly every once in a while, what about the people that fly constantly and are using airports for weekly travel. Are these amounts dangerous then? The companies who make these scanners say that the amount of x-rays that they put out are not enough to be dangerous but other scientist say that after long constant exposure they can be harmful. For the people that travel a lot this has caused some concern. Another controversial aspect of screening is the question, do they actually work? These scanners may detect for metal and produce a virtual naked image of the individual, on the other hand, these machines do not have the capability to detect anything inside the body; anything that is not superficial the scanners will not be able to detect. According to wired.com, Peter Kant, executive vice president of Los Angeles-based Rapiscan Systems stated “None of the body scanners used by TSA are capable of doing that. They’re not designed to do that nor is it a requirement.” The machines are not made to scan more than superficial surface of the human body. Peter also stated “It’s
Cited: Dougherty, Jon E. Poll: Most Americans OK with Airport Screening. Newsroom America, 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. Kravets, David. Airport ‘Nude’ Body Scanners: Are They Effective?. N.p., 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. . "Security Scanning." HPS. Health Physics Society, 27 Aug. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. .