Common Concerns on Pregnancy and Security Screening Procedure

The Transport Security Administration (TSA) was established subsequent to the horrendous 11th September, 2001 attacks for safeguarding transportation systems and keeping public travel as risk free as possible. The TSA has undertaken the testing of the duo scanning devices namely: the millimetre wave and backscatter imaging technology and has made announcement that it is taking into consideration purchasing further a hundred and fifty backscatter pieces. The usage of these sophisticated scanning technology is however non-compulsory to all air travellers.

After this announcement there have been rising concerns regarding these novel scanners particularly among pregnant women. Often expectant mothers wonder that passing through the airport security threshold would cause any harm to their unborn child. There is no form of risk to either the pregnant woman or her unborn foetus as the scanning apparatus employed to inspect one’s carry-ons are quite ably protected hence there is no form of risk to all those who pass by these security thresholds. The metal detectors also are no known to cause any form of risk during pregnancy or otherwise.

Even pregnant women operating baggage X-ray machines need not be concerned as the X-ray beams emitted from these devices are analogous to those of medical X-ray devices with the exception of being emanated at exceedingly lower doses. The place where the person operating the device is seated is also properly secured and all those expectant mothers could safely continue to operate these devices and do not need to quit their jobs.

A niggling concern among mothers is whether the food items they are carrying for their child like baby feeding bottles, food items or other medicines would be affected in any way when they pass through the security screening devices. Since the levels of radiation exposure from such screening devices is very less, hence any items like foods, electronic items (few camera models could turn dark) or medicines would not be affected even after continually being exposed. Moreover, there could be fears of whether any form of remnants due to the radiation could be present in the food items that being exposed to radiation which are completely fallacious.

Even the quantity of radiation that the clothes get exposed to is diminutive to be able to cause any form of degrading of its materials. Scanning device manufacturers point out that the amount of radiation that an object is exposed to due to a scan is nearly 1/10th the exposure that individuals get on a day-to-day basis from innately arising radiation (prevalently known as background radiation).

The metal detectors and wands employed during personalized screening emit radiation that are of the non-ionizing form and deemed risk-free, causing no form of biological harm despite repetitive and regular scanning.

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