A HUDDERSFIELD doctor is shocked at the Government’s decision to make ‘naked’ body scanning at airports mandatory despite the EUs decision to review the machines.
Consultant eye specialist Tony Aguirre refused to go through the body scanner at Manchester Airport and was consequently banned from boarding his flight.
The Fartown man believes that the machines emit a dangerous amount of radiation and are also unethical – as they create an image of a person’s naked body.
Now, the EU has told member states not to install any more machines for the next year until a full scientific risk assessment has been carried out.
But the UK Government has decided to make scans mandatory in the meantime.
The HRI doctor said: “I am pleased that they are reviewing the machines but I don’t think that we should be using them in the meantime.
“The UK government seem to care less about its citizens than the USA, if someone refuses a scan anywhere else they do not have to have it, why should we?
“Are the government going to apologise in 20 years times if the radiation has caused defects in children?
“I think that the main reason for keeping the machines is money, it is cheaper to use a machine than it is to use a person and it seems as though the health aspect has been disregarded.
Manchester currently uses 16 of the £80,000 body scanning machines – which were introduced as an increased security measure following the ‘underwear bomb’ plot in 2009.
The government has also said that plans are underway to change the way the machines operate – with images being analysed by software rather than security staff.
Transport Secretary Justine Greening said that the consultation of the scanners found that only 12 passengers refused them among one million scans and objections were mainly based on the idea of having body images available for analysis.
In relation to using the “pat down” method, she said: “I have considered this carefully however I have decided against it, on security, operational and privacy grounds.
“I do not believe that a pat down search is equivalent in security terms to a security scan.
“The purpose of introducing security scanners in the first place was to protect the travelling public better against sophisticated terrorist threats: these threats still exist and the required level of security is not achieved by permitting passengers to choose a less effective alternative.”
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