The popular press continues to sensationalise the use of X-ray scanners in airports, with mentions of nakedness and photos of people stripped right down to their birthday suits. Photos of buttocks, body piercings, and other very personal items accompany the complaints of invasion of privacy, pornography, child abuse, and so on.

Meanwhile, scientists are quietly working at protecting the health and safety of those people who, whether travellers or scanner operators, have no other option than to be exposed to the X-rays of the new security check systems gradually being introduced in airports.

Manchester airport was the first in the United Kingdom to try out the X-ray system. The airport authorities reported that customers preferred the scanners because they allowed them to pass through security faster and cleared them from having to be patted down and to remove their coats, shoes, belts, and jackets.

There has been little talk of the risk of being overexposed to X-rays, though Manchester airport authorities did talk of frequent flyers and the possibility of being able to go through the checks 5000 times a year without worry.

Radiation protection instrumentation – X-ray systems for the screening of persons for security and the carrying of illicit items IEC 62463 is in its final stages before publication. This publication deals with those X-ray screening assemblies that are used to examine people for such objects as weapons, explosives, and smuggled or stolen items such as drugs or diamonds.

Radiation protection instrumentation

There are three types of X-ray screening systems currently in use: backscatter systems, transmission systems, and combination backscatter/transmission systems. The backscatter systems use X-rays to detect objects hidden under or in clothing. Transmission systems can detect swallowed or hidden-in-body cavity objects. The combination devices receive both types of information simultaneously.

The object of this latest Standard is to lay down the standard radiation and safety requirements in relation to the X-ray doses to which people can be submitted covering both those being screened, those in close vicinity, and those operating the equipment.

'The IEC Standard is the first international document where upper limits for the radiation doses are stated', says Secretary of the IEC subcommittee (SC) 45B 'Radiation protection instrumentation' Miroslav Voytchev.

Radiation protection instrumentation – Cargo/Vehicle radiographic inspection systems IEC 62523 is a similar Standard, also in its final stages before publication. As its name suggests, it deals with cargo screening.

Voytchev adds, 'speaking with my colleagues, nobody has heard of any independent laboratory testing of instrumentation for radiation protection. The two IEC Standards provide the possibility to carry out such tests and to verify that equipment complies with the IEC international Standard. That means that, in future, when you're flying and have to go through a scanning system in an airport, knowing it's been certified to our international Standard, you should feel reassured to know that the scanner is safe not only for you, but also for all the people surrounding you.'

Says Peter Chiaro, Chairman of SC 45B: 'The United States of America has shown great interest in the testing possibilities the new Standards provide since they put the emphasis on the safety of people.' His view is corroborated by past Chair Ian Thompson, who points out that the idea for the Standard arose when SC 45B participated in an interagency committee on radiation safety meeting about irradiation of the public in a non-medical environment. 'The participating international organisations welcomed the proposal of the IEC to draft a Standard on the safety issues of design and the use of screening equipment. Since the [25 December 2009] attempt to blow up the plane from Amsterdam to Detroit with explosives sewn into clothing, the demand for such X-ray equipment has increased.

'The use of radiation sources and machines to irradiate members of the public for non-medical reasons has to be legally justified. And yet, although many countries do not permit the use of such equipment their own citizens could be X-rayed on arrival or departure when flying within other countries. The IACRS statement says that equipment shall conform to the IEC Standards.'

Summarised from an article in IEC e-Tech March 2010.

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