Re: No Pat Down option for Australian body scanners
From what I know, the scanner being used are 'millimetre wave" scanners. Which use radio waves, as opposed to x-rays. But saying that, the frequencies are so high, the "jury is still out" about health concerns.
Even the x-ray versions use d ifferent technology to standard x-ray machines, which basically penetrate the body to project to a film under the body part being x-rayed. The airport versions are a "back scatter" type in which the x-rays only penetrate abouty 10mm then are reflected back. Still not good for high risk individuals (children, pregnant females).
What is disturbing though, is that workers who use the back scatter machines on a daily basis in the US, were being denied "exposure badges" to warn them of accumulative dosages. Radiographers don't wear those big lead aprons for nothing.
At the end of the day, most of it is BS. Unless thay start x-raying every single airport worker and vehicle coming in and out of the airport every single day, fancy front-of-house machines (at about a million a pop) just make it LOOK like security is tight. To the travelling public.