I was relieved when I heard the news that Logan airport would be replacing its full body backscatter scanners — which use small amounts of radiation — with the millimeter wave scanners that don’t use any X-ray radiation. The official reason for replacing the security scanner is because of a failure to fulfill a congressional mandate, which required the machines to have new software to produce less-revealing images by June of this year.
Software adjustments were successfully completed for the millimeter wave scanners, but not the backscatter devices, according to the Transportation Safety Administration. The decision alleviates concerns about excess radiation exposure that might have occurred if the machines malfunctioned.
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The German government has not changed its August, 2011, evaluation of the ProVision ATD milkimeter-wave scanner--finding it too unreliable to use. In tests involving over three quarters of a million passengers, it was poor at detecting hidden weapons and explosives, and it produced torrents of false alarms, sometimes half the passengers scanned.
You may feel relieved, Deborah, but not the many people who have titanium replacement joints who were able to go through the scanners without setting off alarms. They can now look forward to a complete TSA body pat down every time they go through security.