Airport Security scanners are much less powerful than a medical x-ray scanner but still advanced enough to detect medical problems in passengers with the help of radiofrequency waves that can easily pick up abnormalities or bulges in passengers.
These days, Millimeter wave scanners are used at Airports they are powerful enough to detect items concealed under clothes or even inside the body like drugs hidden inside the stomach or bum but they do not show body parts on the screen like backscatter scanners which are sacked and now a TSO only sees a vague genderless outline of the human body like a funny cartoon avatar.
Can Airport Scanners Detect Medical Problems?
What Medical conditions can Airport Scanners detect?
Scanners can detect a tumor, lipomas ( fatty lumps ) or lipodystrophy ( abnormal distribution of fat ), tuberculosis, migraines, flat foot, insomnia, high blood pressure, diabetes, club foot, pregnancy, ostioilymtis, blindness, deafness, sarcoma, medically applied metals, knees replaced with metal knees, mass around the groin, skin lesions, hernia, skin cyst, and a lot more.
How Airport scanner detects Medical Problems?
As discussed earlier, Airport scanners are equipped with different types of scanners like baggage scanners and body scanners ( Backscatter & Millimeter wave scanners ) but now the majority of Airports have only Millimeter wave scanners.
Backscatter scanners also known as “Nudie Scanners” soon caught in controversies because the images were too revealing and explicit and due to that nudity TSA received many lawsuits and sacked the backscatter scanners because the ionizing radiation would not only invade the privacy of passengers but would also pose health risks.
On the other hand, the Millimeter wave scanner with non-ionizing radiation radiofrequency waves would not pass through the body and would bounce back into the scanner with details without showing body parts while detecting illegal items concealed under clothes even tampons.
Examples of Scanner Detecting Medical Problems
Many reports are stating that scanners would detect health or Medical problems and there was a case where a female passenger with a skin cyst was regularly stopped on suspicion of hiding an explosive device.
Can Airport Scanner Detect Cancer or Inflammation?
Airport scanners are advanced and smart enough to penetrate under clothes but not inside the body so no scanners can’t detect cancer or inflammation but can easily detect objects which are not part of the body like skin growth, implants, colostomy bags, metallic or non-metallic objects that protrude from the body.
How Often Do Airport Scanners Detect Medical Problems?
As you know Larger Airports now use only Millimeter wave scanners only a handful of Airports are now using backscatter scanners due to certain reasons.
People have been pulled aside for suspicion but not because they have some medical issues, just because detectors can sometimes get triggered with false alarms as well.
What Should I Do if I Keep on Setting Off Airport Body Scanner?
If you think you set off the scanner and you do not have anything illegal on you then you visit your doctor because that could be a signal pointing towards your health that the detector is picking.
It could be anything harmless like Lipomas ( fatty lumps ) or lipodystrophy ( abnormal distribution of fat ) which can trigger scanners sometimes.
So, keep in mind that scanners are not capable to penetrate your body but abnormal body shapes due to medical issues or other reasons can get you flagged and TSO can ask you for a pat-down search or further interrogation and inspection.
But Airport scanners are safe for pregnancy and pregnant women can easily pass the scanner as the radiations are thousands of time less than a cellular data transmitter that makes no health risk to the baby inside the belly of the mother.
