This is a question that many people have continued to ask themselves. You will realize that in airports, people boarding planes have to pass through a thorough check to ensure our safety while on the plane. Most of the people who have traveled by plane have seen different kinds of security checks done on them and their luggage’s. At an airport, there are many entrances and exits that one has to come across; all these passes have highly secure walk through metal detectors that plane passengers are required to pass through.
There has been a debate about the health concerns over these walk through metal detectors. Many health organizations have come in full protest against these detectors, taking into account safety of people and especially that of a pregnant woman. The argument has been sparked out by the way the detectors function to detect the metals that one could be hiding on or in the body. Many people have postulated that walk through metal detectors use x-rays which have been proved to be harmful not only to the pregnant women, but also ordinary users. X-rays have been known to mutate people’s genes and cause abnormal births. It is following this argument that people have been against these detectors. Pregnant women have the fear of having miscarriages or stillbirths when passing through these detectors.
So far, there have not been cases reported about people who have suffered in one way or another after passing through this walk through metal detectors.
The fact of the matter is that walk through metal detectors are safe for people to walk through including pregnant women. Luggage x-ray detectors have been made to use x-rays in their functioning; these rays are not harmful to inanimate objects like luggage.
Walk through metal detectors use low level x-rays which have been known to be harmless to people. Low level x-rays are safe and this is the reason for their continued use in major security installations in airports and other highly sensitive places. Walk through metal detectors have been designed with the knowledge that its human beings that use them. It is important to understand that the technology that has been used is safe for people.
In high security installations, there are two kinds of detectors or more. There are places where you have to pass your luggage’s through a curtain for scanning of weapons. The x-rays in this machine are able to identify any slight metal or weapon that is being hidden in the luggage. However, it is also important that whenever one feels not safe walking through the metal detectors to inform the relevant authorities so that alternative arrangements can be made to check them. In many airports worldwide, there is the section of safety administration which is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that passengers are safe while using the airport services. It is advisable to call and explain your issues at all times.
In future, medical experts have warned that security installations should check to ensure that no x-ray of any levels should be used in walk through metal detectors or other security checks. This is because there are people who have developed allergic reactions out of walking through these detectors. The effects of this have been long term and led to the suffering of many people. Whenever such a case happens, the person concerned is at liberty to launch a complaint in court or other systems for compensation. It is however sad to note that there are some cases whose compensation cannot bring back the normal way of life however good the package may be.
Brandon Allred is a security expert when it comes to metal detectors. Please follow me on twitter.
