Full-body airport scanners may pose cancer risk

Security officials rely on full-body scanners to screen passengers, but could those machines pose a cancer risk to airline customers?

Several foreign media outlets reported this week on a possible cancer risk from the controversial full-body scanners.

One report said, "experts say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children. They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin -- one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body -- that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated."

"The dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high."

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