View Full Version : Nuts in May
GANNET FAN
22nd May 2007, 12:46
I think its been mentioned before but today's London Evening Standard says that the new X-ray scanners at airports could be a health hazard.
Would you be nervous about having your genitalia (their words) revealed on a screen!
I can quite see how pregnant ladies would object.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23397526-details/Health+fear+over+new+airport+scanners/article.do
PAXboy
22nd May 2007, 21:58
AFAIR it's not X-rays but it may be easier for newspapers to refer to them as such rather than Millimetre Waves.
There are two systems under trail in different parts of the world and this subject has been discussed here each time the newspapers remember the story. The short answer is - go through the scanner or don't travel.
Since these systems can see through clothing there will be gender specific scanners. One article I read recently, said that the operators will be in a separate part of thbuilding, so that they cannot then 'look around the monitor' and directly see the person. They will communciate to the scanner attendents to say if a person needs to be hand searched.
Some systems, we are told, will be de-tuned so that they 'see' the underwear but no further. The ones used by the American military are not de-tuned (we are told).
X-Ray, CAT, MRI, PET, CT, this is just one more and there are plenty of other things to kill us. Such as all those terribly dangerous tubes of toothpaste and handcream that we now have removed from us. Whew ...:p
skydriller
24th May 2007, 14:24
The short answer is - go through the scanner or don't travel.
I have a feeling that this may be a step too far for quite a few people....I forsee either trouble ahead with refusals, leaked "photos" and media horror stories or travellers just not flying anymore.
Regards, SD..
When you consider that :
1. Security staff is a minimum wage occupation.
2. Tabloid journalists have open chequebooks (a photo being maybe worth more than a year's minimum wage income).
3. All sorts of recognisable celebs go through these points.
There is surely much opportunity for income supplement.
Anyway it is surely a huge expense when there is a much cheaper alternative - all pax and crew to drop their pants and bend over to show they do not have a bomb up their bum. Presumably this will have to be the fallback anyway when the machine is u/s.