The document summarizes the radiation exposure from airport security screening devices. It states that the radiation exposure from these devices is very low, well below safety limits established by regulatory bodies. While some controversy surrounds the devices due to media coverage, studies have consistently shown the radiation dose to be negligible compared to other common sources of radiation exposure. The document aims to educate readers on the types of devices used, radiation basics, and assess the actual level of risk compared to benefits of security screening.

1. Radiation Exposure: The Truth and Nothing But.
So, How Low is the Radiation Exposure from Airport Security Screening Devices?
Schneider MT1*, Mohapatra SM, Atkins F, Khorjekar G, Van Nostrand D1.
Washington Hospital Center, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Washington DC1.
Figure 5 The American National Standards Institute/ Health Physics
Objectives Society consensus standard report that people-scanning devices
Figure 1 Figure 2 cannot emit more than 0.25 microsievert per screening. The
After reviewing this educational exhibit, the reader will be able current devices on the market yield less than half that per scan.
to: Backscatter systems have been independently evaluated by the
1. Understand the difference between Ionizing and Non- following: Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for
ionizing radiation,
Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH); National Institute
2. Briefly described the types of security screening devices that
for Standards and Technology (NIST) on behalf of TSA; and
use radiation and how they operate,
2. List the number of devices that use radiation for airport From TSA.Gov
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
All results consistently confirm that radiation doses are well
security screening in the United States of America (USA) and How Many Scanners Exist &
the number of airports in the USA that have these devices, Ionizing vs. Non-ionizing Radiation below the limits specified by the standard established by the
3. Discuss the degree to which one is exposed upon passing
Where Are They? American National Standards Institute and through the Health
through an airport security screener in terms of radiation risk To begin this discussion, the reader must understand the Is YOUR airport on this list? It will be! Physics Society (ANSI/HPS) – ANSI/HPS N43.17-2009
and compare and contrast this risk to other environmental and fundamental difference between ionizing versus non-ionizing Radiation Safety for Personnel Security Screening Systems
medical exposure, and radiation. To understand this, we have included the following From TSA.Gov Using X-ray or Gamma Radiation.
Figure 3 According to the most recent 2011 TSA reports, approximately
4. Discuss the diversity of controversy that surround these graph for illustrative purposes. Non -ionizing radiation, simply 540 advanced imaging technology (AIT) machines are located at
devices (e.g., quality control, frequency of periodic test, the put, is that in which the energy being emitted can cause more than 100 airports nationwide. 275 more units are allotted
sensationalism of main stream media, and public reporting of
molecules to be moved about and even vibrate but it‟s not for in the FY2012 budget by the Obama administration. Airports
test results).
enough to remove electrons. This is the primary difference. that have the technology include :
Peoria International Airport
Examples of this kind of radiation are sound waves, visible A.B. Won Pat International Airport
Albany International Airport
Albuquerque International Sunport Airport
Philadelphia International Airport
Phoenix International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John Wayne Airport
Kansas City International
Public Controversy And Media Hysteria light, and microwaves. Ionizing radiation is that with which has
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
Pittsburgh International Airport
Port Columbus International
Portland International Airport
LA/Ontario International
LaGuardia International Airport
Lansing Capital City Airport
enough energy to „knock off” tightly bound electrons from
Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport Raleigh-Durham International Airport
Lambert/St. Louis International Airport
Bishop International Airport Richmond International Airport
Laredo International Airport
Boston Logan International Rochester International Airport (MN)
Lihue Airport
Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport Ronald Reagan Washington National
As the threat of yet another terrorist attack on air travel atomic particles, thereby creating ions. This is what we Boise Airport
Bradley International Airport
Airport
Sacramento International Airport
Los Angeles International
Luis Munoz Marin International Airport
McAllen Miller Airport
Figure 6 Figure 7
Brownsville Saipan International Airport
McCarran International Airport
continues to looms, the US Transportation Security typically refer to as “radiation.” It can be used for a myriad of
Discussion – You Decide !
Buffalo Niagara International Airport Salt Lake City International Airport
McGee Tyson Airport
Casper/Natrona County International Airport San Antonio International Airport
Meadows Field Airport
Charlotte Douglas International San Diego International Airport
Memphis International Airport
Administration (TSA) under the auspice of the Department purposes such as killing cancer cells and more
Chicago Midway International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International
San Francisco International Airport
Sarasota Bradenton International
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Miami International Airport
General Mitchell Milwaukee International Airport
Melbourne International Airport
of Homeland Security (DHS), has implemented an conventionally, generating electricity. The figure below from
Cleveland International Airport
Corpus Christie Airport
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
Spokane International Airport
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International
T.F. Green Airport
Mineta San José International
Minneapolis/St.Paul International Airport
Despite the onslaught of mainstream media sensationalism and
Myrtle Beach International Airport
increasing number of screening devices that use radiation. the EPA visually helps to illustrate this.
Dallas Love Field Airport
Dayton International Airport
Daytona Beach International Airport
Tallahassee Regional Airport
Tampa International Airport
Ted Stevens Anchorage International
Nashville International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
the literal archipelago of TSA attacks regarding the overall
Despite being assured that the levels of radiation are From TSA.Gov
Denver International Airport
Detroit Metro Airport
Dulles International Airport
Airport
Toledo Express
Tulsa International Airport
Oakland International Airport
Omaha Eppley Field Airport
Orlando International Airport
safety of their „screening technology,‟ one can see how little
“negligible, “minimal,” or inconsequential,” how low is Millimeter Wave (see Figure 2) bounces electromagnetic El Paso International Airport
Fairbanks International Airport
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Wendover Airport
Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport
Greater Rochester International Airport
Palm Beach International Airport
Palm Springs International exposure is actually absorbed. When put into context and
Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport
“inconsequential?” In addition, as nuclear medicine waves, thousands of times less intense than your cell phone, Fort Wayne International Airport
Fresno Airport
Gainesville Regional Airport
(NY)
Harrisburg International Airport
Harlingen/Valley International Airport contrasted to what one normally encounters either simply
off your whole body in order to create a generic image for all Gulfport International Airport
Grand Rapids Airport
Honolulu International Airport
Houston William P. Hobby Airport
through air travel alone, or on a daily basis, one can see how
physicians, nuclear radiologists, nuclear physicists, or Indianapolis International Airport
passengers. That image is simply an outline of a universal Jacksonville International Airport
minor and insignificant the risks are in light of the facts. If
radiation safety officers, we are not infrequently asked by figure, male or female, and is in no way an actual
peers, staff, patients, friends and family the very same Daily Radiation Exposure as there is a price to pay for security, it‟s a small one to say the
representation of the passengers body habitus. An example of
least. While it‟s apparent, based on the shear number of
question. This educational exhibit helps to address this this can be seen below in Figure 4. Examples of these two Compared to TSA Screening – screening equipment in use, you will undoubtedly encounter
question. technologies and their equivalent radiation exposure as
compared to air travel can be seen in Figure 5. A Visual Representation one of these devices at some point throughout your life, a
Myth Busters thorough review of the evidence suggests that it a tightly
Figure 4
regulated industry from both a safety and reliability
Courtesy: The Environmental Protection Agency SOURCES OF RADIATION EXPOSURE TO SOURCES OF RADIATION EXPOSURE TO
THE US POPULATION THE US POPULATION standpoint. The radiation emitted is a mere pittance when it
NCRP report # 93 (1987) NCRP report # 160 (2009)
comes to overall activities of daily life. According to the
Scanner Devices Currently In Use By TSA Journal of Internal Medicine‟s article entitled “Airport Full
Body Screening, What is the Risk?”, state that “Among the
Currently two types of scanners are employed by TSA for 750 million enplanements per year taken by 100 million
passenger screening purposes. The first of these is the Rapiscan passengers, 6 cancers over the lifetime of these individuals
Backscatter or NudeOscope (see Figure 1), which produces could result from the backscatter scans. These 6 cancers need
markedly low levels of ionizing radiation. It does this by to be considered in the context of the 40 million cancers that
ALERT: Object Found vs. ALL CLEAR
emitting x-rays over the body to produce an image as seen in would develop in these individuals over the course of their
Figure 3. Reprinted with permission of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, http://NCRPonline.org.
lifetimes due to the high underlying cancer incidence.”