European Union Bans Use Of “U.S. Style” Body Scanners

Officials in the European Union ruled this week that the use of American style full body scanners will not be allowed in the region.

While American’s have complained about the intrusive nature of the machines EU officials were more concerned with a larger problem, the “health and safety” of the devices.

The main concern raised EU officials was the ionizing radiation used in the machines which has been linked to cancer in a handful of hundreds of millions of airline passengers.

Instead of the ionizing radiation machines the EU has chosen to offer millimeter-wave scanners which use radio frequency waves, a safer option that has not been linked to cancer.

Millimeter-wave scanners are used by 500 scanners in the US and half of those scanners use “body scanner” technology (backscatters) and half millimeter-waves.

In the meantime the TSA in the United States will deploy 1,800 backscatter and millimeter-wave scanners over the next three years.

[Image via Dikiiy / Shutterstock.com]