Enter Your Email Address to Receive a
Copy of MedicExhange Member Demograhpics

The new full-body scanners being installed in airports use x-ray s to peek under clothing, but experts say the health risks associated with these extremely low doses of radiation are miniscule.

Each backscatter x-ray scan (travelers get two, front and back) exposes a person to 0.05 to 0.1 microsieverts of radiation, a tiny amount. Exposure from a chest x-ray is equal to 1,000 to 2,000 scans, according to an article in the British Medical Journal by Dr. Mahadevappa Mahesh, chief physicist and associate professor of radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

A backscatter x-ray scan involves the same radiation exposure as an American gets in 30 minutes from natural sources (cosmic rays, radon, etc.) or in 2 to 10 minutes of air travel, Mahesh calculates. Exposure is higher on a plane because the atmosphere offers less protection.

For every billion people scanned, 10 to 20 cases of radiation-caused cancer could develop, Mahesh said.

"That's quite small when you consider that the lifetime risk of cancer in the U.S. population is above 40 percent," he said.

Still, the international Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety has warned that pregnant women and children should avoid these airport scans, Bloomberg News reported.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Discuss more about Radiology in the Radiology user group.