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Europe's blow for health safety
- The European Commission's recent decision to ban the use of X-ray technology for full-body scanning at airports to avoid “jeopardising” the health and safety of passengers is a victory for millions of travellers.
- This marks a sharp departure from the stand taken by the United States, which is planning to increase the number of such machines at airports.
- Ionising radiation has a cumulative effect, and the risk of cancer exists even when the radiation dose is low — this was highlighted in a 2006 report of the National Academy of Sciences.
- The use of X-ray scanners becomes all the more questionable considering that millimetre-wave scanners — an equally efficient technology that uses radio waves — can be used for screening.
- Unlike X-rays, radio waves do not ionise the molecules of the body, and there is virtually no health risk.
