Now that full body scanners will be coming to all major airports in Canada and the US, do they affect pacemakers? The articles I read on the scanner say that they are imaging scanners that use electromagnetic waves to scan through clothing like an X-ray. The electro magnetic thing bothers me. Pacemakers and magnets don't mix. I'm trying to find out more info on them and would love your feedback.


Paula

 

 

Yeppa, we are all gonna have to get nekkid...

Honestly since I have been through security for the first time a couple of weeks ago don't think anything will change for us. The pat down might be a little more uncomfortable and intrusive but the way I look at it no big deal.

 

http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/imaging_technology.shtm

My understanding is it uses millimeter waves and xray, not electromagnetic. Now, I'm no electronics guru (Electric Frank is, maybe he'll come answer) and I don't have a clue what any of that means, but that's what I found when I looked it up after I went through it in Salt Lake last time I flew and it said it was safe for pacemakers. !

It's going to be a while before they hit all the airports! I believe the US is testing them in 15 airports right now. They're not required, you can choose to have a pat down instead.

paging Frank..... ttcpm

 

I just finished reading an article about the Full Body Scanners, but of course, it didn't say who would be safe going through it and who wouldn't. The article I read was what Canadian cities would be receiving them.

I would assume something in print would come from Medtronic and all the other pacemaker and defib companies instead of all of just guessing if it will be safe for us or not. Plus I'm going to hope that the employees who are trained to use these scanners will be made aware of who is safe and who is not.

If it is up to me: I'd rather do what I usually do: get the pat down and be on my way.

But I do have a question: if this scanner is like an Xray, doesn't that mean we would be subjected to radiation?

I'm sure all of this information will come out in time. Sorta like when Wii came out...the safety issues were posted quite quickly.

Happy flying,
Pookie

 

Since the full-body scanner use electromagnetic waves and not X-ray I'm guessing they are a no-no for pacemakers. We should know moe about these things ain a few days. See below.

"Millimeter wave" (radio wave) full-body scanners

The newer type of scanners, called a "millimeter wave" machine, doesn't use radiation. It uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body.

The millimeter wave machine works like this: A person walks into a large portal that resembles a that resembles a glass elevator (9 feet tall and 6 feet wide), pauses and lifts his or her arms while the machine takes two scans using radio waves. The scans take 1.8 seconds, and it takes about a minute for the image to appear on a computer screen in a separate location.

 

I don't know much more at this point. I just tried some technical searches on it, but all the info right now is on privacy issues.

If it is millimeter wavelength radio frequency it isn't an accumulative form of radiation. The frequency is too high to likely affect the electronics of the pacer. Heating could be an effect, but if the burst of energy is only 1.8 seconds that is also unlikely.

At this point if I encountered one I would probably just go on through it.

What happens if their machine causes the pacemaker battery to blow up. Will they haul us in as a terrorist?

frank

 

Be serious. I believe you'd go on the TSA watch list. You know where they discover you have a pacer and say to each other...Watch this...

 

The day I start being serious, terrible things will happen.

Or it means .. he isn't wearing a watch.

frank

 

...that the people in the other room looking at the scans will have training to recognize a pacemaker for what it is if they see it on the scan, but do you think they will pull us aside for a pat-down anyway when they see it? I'd rather save time and request the pat-down to begin with if that's likely to be the case.

 

I haven't been able to find a difinitive answer on this so have emailed my local airport to find out which scanner they are using. Unfortunately in the UK the choice of having a pat down has been withdrawn as from today, if you refuse a full body scan you will be denied travel.

 

The airport got back to me really quicky. Thet say, "The technologies used in the Body Scanners at Manchester Airport have been fully assessed by Government's health and safety regulators – the radiation dose received from being scanned is far below the allowed levels in the UK and does not constitute a risk to health for any passengers including those with pacemakers, internal defibrillators or other implanted devices".