--- title: Airport Scanner Safety: What Do Doctors Do? description: CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, was traveling a few months ago when she noticed a man asking to opt out of the full-body scan... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7142040/airport-scanner-safety-what-do-doctors-do/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-04-01T17:45:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:08:08.469Z article:section: Health og:title: Airport Scanner Safety: What Do Doctors Do? og:description: CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, was traveling a few months ago when she noticed a man asking to opt out of the full-body scan... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7142040/airport-scanner-safety-what-do-doctors-do/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81ef800735fa0dd/698a94b09d83e85da6ba0590/backscatter2cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: TSA Demonstrates New Imaging Technology At Reagan National Airport og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Airport Scanner Safety: What Do Doctors Do? twitter:description: CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, was traveling a few months ago when she noticed a man asking to opt out of the full-body scan... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81ef800735fa0dd/698a94b09d83e85da6ba0590/backscatter2cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Airport Scanner Safety: What Do Doctors Do? > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8c65d445-92a3-44d0-9d1e-d41e5cd740d9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Apr 1, 2011 5:45 PM UTC  ARLINGTON, VA - DECEMBER 30: A volunteer stands inside a Backscatter scanner during a demonstration at the Transportation Security Administration's Systems Integration Facility at Ronald Reagan National Airport December 30, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. Backscatter technology uses low level x-rays to create a two-sided image. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) ARLINGTON, VA - DECEMBER 30: A volunteer stands inside a Backscatter scanner during a demonstration at the Transportation Security Administration's Systems Integration Facility at Ronald Reagan National Airport December 30, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. Backscatter technology uses low level x-rays to create a two-sided image. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Getty Images—2009 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Apr 1, 2011 5:45 PM UTC CNN’s senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, was traveling a few months ago when she noticed a man asking to opt out of the full-body scan at the airport security checkpoint, and getting a manual pat-down instead. In the unabashedly curious way of reporters, Cohen asked the man why.more Turns out, he was concerned about excess radiation exposure _and_ he happened to be a surgical oncology fellow at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center — one of the world’s leading cancer hospitals. Cohen opted for the pat-down too. (**More on Time.com:** [Radiation and Kids: X-Rays, CT Scans Are Increasingly Part of Childhood](http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/04/radiation-and-kids-x-rays-ct-scans-are-increasingly-part-of-childhood/)) Back at home, Cohen decided to survey doctors she knew to find out the medical experts’ personal take on the radiation risk of backscatter X-ray scanners. Do they go through the scanners themselves? “All these doctors are smart people with access to the same scientific data, and yet made very different choices,” she [wrote](http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/31/ep.airport.scanners/index.html) in her “Empowered Patient” column. The choices, yes or no, fell into two basic camps. The doctors who stepped through the scans felt that the amount of radiation emitted by the machines was [so minimal](http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/29/airport-scanner-radiation-whats-the-cancer-risk/) — about as much as you’d get from flying in a plane for two minutes — that it didn’t pose a serious risk. Of course, that requires faith in the safety data provided by manufacturers and trust in TSA workers to properly maintain the scanners. One radiation expert from Columbia University whom Cohen interviewed thinks the radiation exposure from the security scan is 10 times the manufacturer-listed rate, but even that level is so low, he said, he goes through the scanners anyway. (**More on Time.com:** [Japan’s Next Nightmare: Health Problems from Radiation Exposure](http://healthland.time.com/2011/03/15/japans-next-nightmare-health-problems-from-radiation-exposure/)) The doctors who opted out of the scans typically did so because they were either wary of the manufacturer data or they believed that no amount of excess radiation was too small not to be avoided. The cancer risk of radiation exposure is cumulative over a lifetime, so why take the risk? Cohen [wrote](http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/31/ep.airport.scanners/index.html): --- > “” --- And as Dr. Dong Kim, chair of the department of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Medical School and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ surgeon, explained to Cohen, radiation levels don’t have to be dramatic — like those being faced by the nuclear plant workers in Japan — to have an effect: “There is really no absolutely safe dose of radiation,” he said. “Each exposure is additive, and there is no need to incur any extra radiation when there is an alternative.” **Related Links:** [5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Cell-Phone Radiation Exposure](http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/23/5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-cell-phone-exposure/) [Radiation May Be a Greater Cancer Risk for Adults Than Doctors Thought](http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/25/radiation-a-greater-cancer-risk-for-adults-than-previously-thought/) [Do Dental Scans Put Your Child at Risk of Cancer?](http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/26/do-dental-scans-put-your-child-at-risk-of-cancer/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7142040/airport-scanner-safety-what-do-doctors-do/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7142040/airport-scanner-safety-what-do-doctors-do/"},"headline":"Airport Scanner Safety: What Do Doctors Do?","datePublished":"2011-04-01T17:45:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:08:08.469Z","description":"CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, was traveling a few months ago when she noticed a man asking to opt out of the full-body scan...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7142040/airport-scanner-safety-what-do-doctors-do/","keywords":["Cancer","Radiation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81ef800735fa0dd/698a94b09d83e85da6ba0590/backscatter2cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81ef800735fa0dd/698a94b09d83e85da6ba0590/backscatter2cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TSA Demonstrates New Imaging Technology At Reagan National Airport","caption":"TSA Demonstrates New Imaging Technology At Reagan National Airport","creditText":"Getty Images—2009 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7142040/airport-scanner-safety-what-do-doctors-do/","name":"Airport Scanner Safety: What Do Doctors Do?"}}]}] ```